The History of the Museum The Bakersfield Museum of Art began as the Cunningham Memorial Art Gallery in1956, with a donation from the Walter Osborn family, who desired to establish an art gallery in of their daughter, Marion Osborn Cunningham (8-1948). Their considerable donation was amplified by the generosity of caring individuals who provided the building blocks for the gallery to be constructed on city land. Cunningham was born in 1908 in Indiana as the first of three children of Walter and Priscilla Osborn. The settled in Bakersfield in 1911, and their first home was on Sunset Avenue. Marion attended Bakersfield High School (then known Kern County Union High School) and studied art under the beloved Mrs. Ruth Emerson. After continuing her studies at Santa Barbara City College and then Stanford University, Marion made her home in San Francisco, where she quickly gained national recognition for her work. In the 1930s, she was well-known as a pastel artist, and in the 1940s for her print. Her small compositions were praised for their curious, dreamlike charm and color harmony. She maintained a studio on Montgomery Street, the center of San Francisco’s art colony. Her untimely death at the age of 39 cut her prolific career short, but Cunningham her work continue to reign as a significant facet of BMoA's history and legacy. Upon its completion, the Gallery was given to the City to be operated by volunteers of the Bakersfield Art Association and a city-appointed Art Commission. voluntary association administered the gallery, highlighting works of local artists with occasional visiting exhibits. The name change the Bakersfield Museum of Art occurred in 1990 with the establishment of the Bakersfield Art Foundation as the governing agency. Just one year later, the Museum gained important national status with accreditation from the American Association of Museums. Following major endowments from the Patricia Crail Brown Foundation and the late Dr. George and Millie Ablin, a capital campaign to expand the Museum began in earnest in 1997. In June of that same year, the Foundation purchased the building and land from the City of Bakersfield and launched the project that expanded the museum to 17,400 square feet. In February 2001, the beautiful new Bakersfield Museum of Art proudly opened its doors to the.