The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Releases 2024 Annual Report

Report Highlights Strong Attendance, Increased Donor Support, and Expanded Programming

Museum Announces Significant Gifts from Robyn and John Horn, 2027 Tabriz Co-Chairs, and More

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA) today released its 2024 Annual Report during the museum’s annual meeting attended by the AMFA Foundation Board of Directors, AMFA Board of Trustees, City of Little Rock leadership, and other AMFA supporters and staff members. The report, available here, highlights key metrics from January 2024 to December 2024, the museum’s first full calendar year of operations since its grand opening.

Highlights:

• Strong Attendance: AMFA welcomed 132,518 guests, with visitors from all Little Rock zip codes, 73 Arkansas counties, 255 Arkansas cities, 47 U.S. states, and 9 countries. 3,011 of those guests visited the museum for special programming during the 2024 total solar eclipse. Through statewide outreach efforts, AMFA served an additional 8,435 individuals, bringing the total attendance to 140,953 people.
• Donor Support: With contributions of $1,000 and above, AMFA’s total number of individual and corporate donors reached a new record of 366.
• Free Programs: AMFA offered a diverse slate of free programs for adults, children, and families, including 81 gallery tours, 47 Art Start sessions, 44 social events, 38 Creative Saturdays, 24 talks and lectures, and 7 family festivals.

The museum’s revenue of $12.2 million was driven by diverse funding sources, including $4 million from the City of Little Rock, $3.2 million from individual and corporate contributions and memberships, $2.9 million from the AMFA Foundation, and $2.1 million in earned revenue. AMFA reported total expenses of $12.2 million for the fiscal year, reflecting continued investments in personnel, programming, and exhibitions.

“Today, we ask ourselves two essential questions: ‘What do we want the future of our community to be?’ and ‘How can AMFA help create the place we are all proud to call home?’” remarked Dr. Victoria Ramirez, Executive Director of AMFA. “By all measures, 2024 was a resounding success. But rest assured, we have even more in store for this year and beyond.”

Robyn and John Horn Gift 105 Works to the AMFA Foundation Collection

In 1990, Robyn and John Horn made their first gift to the Museum—a turned wood bowl by Bob Stocksdale. Since then, the couple has generously donated more than 155 works of art to the AMFA Foundation Collection.

During the annual meeting, Ramirez announced that Robyn and John Horn are further deepening their legacy with the gift of an additional 105 works from their private collection. The donation includes works in clay, metal, wood, glass, and works on paper that significantly strengthen AMFA’s nationally renowned collections of contemporary craft and works on paper. The gift also includes works by important midcentury and modern international sculptors Anthony Caro, Barbara Hepworth, Louise Nevelson, and Isamu Noguchi.

In the coming years, additional outdoor sculptures from the Horn’s private collection will be added to the museum’s surrounding landscape in MacArthur Park.

More details on these gifts, as well as 119 works gifted by Martin Muller, are to be announced soon.

Architects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina On View October 3, 2025 – January 11, 2026

After more than five years in development, AMFA is proud to present Architects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina, opening on October 3, 2025, in the Stephens Family Gallery. This groundbreaking exhibition brings together sculptures, collages, jewelry, and clothing by Nevelson and Slobodkina—two pioneering, mid-20^th-century female artists—for the very first time.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue of original scholarship published by the University of Arkansas Press. Following its debut at AMFA, the exhibition will travel to two additional venues in 2026: the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, and the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.

Architects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina is supported in part by the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Alan DuBois Fund for Contemporary Craft, Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, Anita Davis, and The Jewish Federation of Arkansas.

The catalogue for Architects of Being: Louise Nevelson and Esphyr Slobodkina is supported in part by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.

This exhibition is organized by the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts.

2027 Tabriz Co-Chairs Announced

Following the success of Tabriz 2025, which marked the legacy gala’s return to the museum and raised a record $2.6 million, plans are already underway for Tabriz 2027. Ramirez announced Tabietha and Bill Dillard and Mary and Dave Ritchey as the Tabriz 2027 co-chairs.

The Dillard family has supported Tabriz consistently since 2005, and the Ritchey’s have a special connection to AMFA with Mary serving a dual role as Foundation Director and Board Member.

54 Works Conserved and 53 Acquired for the Permanent Collection

As part of the museum’s work caring for the AMFA Foundation Collection, AMFA commissioned the cleaning and conservation of 54 works of art in 2024. Chair of the AMFA Foundation, Mike Mayton, shared that the effort was supported by the Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, and included works such as The Alchemist by Edward Merk (1880) and Windswept by Benjamin Chambers (1910).

Additionally, 53 works were purchased or gifted to the institution, including Grand March Opening Theme by Perle Fine (1945).

Susan L. Day Posthumously Receives 2025 Winthrop Rockefeller Memorial Award

Terri Erwin, AMFA Foundation Director and chair of the Winthrop Rockefeller Memorial Award committee, announced that the recipient of this year’s Winthrop Rockefeller Memorial Award is former AMFA docent Susan L. Day.

“Susan’s work at AMFA touched the lives of thousands of visitors, and we are grateful for her dedication to the museum,” Erwin commented before presenting the award to Day’s husband, Skip Clemmons, during AMFA’s annual meeting.

Day joined the museum’s volunteer docent program in 2012. In 2022 and 2023, Susan served as an AMFA ex-officio Board Member, representing the docent program during a pivotal period when the museum prepared for and held its grand re-opening to the public. She continued to lead tours from April 2023 through August 2024.

Upon Susan’s passing in October 2024, AMFA created the Susan L. Day Docent Award to honor the dedication and impact of museum docents and celebrate Day’s lasting contributions. This award was first bestowed in April 2025 to docent Tobin Sparling.

Admission to AMFA is always free. For more information about AMFA, please visit arkmfa.org.

About the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts

Founded in 1937, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is the largest cultural institution of its kind in the state, offering a unique blend of visual and performing arts experiences. AMFA is committed to featuring diverse media and artistic perspectives within its permanent collection of 14,000 works of art as well as through rotating temporary exhibitions. AMFA’s international collection spans eight centuries, with strengths in works on paper and contemporary craft, and includes notable holdings by artists from Arkansas, the South, and across the United States and Europe.

With a vibrant mix of ideas, cultures, people, and places, AMFA extends this commitment to diversity through its dynamic children’s theatre and performing arts program, the innovative Windgate Art School, and community-focused educational programs for all ages. Located in Little Rock’s oldest urban green space, MacArthur Park, AMFA’s landmark building and grounds are designed by Studio Gang and SCAPE, in collaboration with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects.