History
Restoration
Since opening in 1994 in Humboldt’s beautifully restored former City Hall, the West Tennessee Regional Art Center has proudly served as Tennessee’s only permanent fine art museum between Nashville and Memphis. From the beginning, WTRAC has brought high-quality exhibitions, educational programming and cultural experiences to people of all ages across the region. The MTSU Center for Historic Preservation once called the museum an “excellent example of adaptive reuse to create a public creative space in Humboldt.”
The Caldwells
The foundation of the Center’s collection was generously donated by Dr. Benjamin and Gertrude Sharp Caldwell, whose gifts of oil paintings, sculpture, watercolors, drawings, prints, lithographs, pastels and silk-screens were intended to inspire cultural learning and appreciation throughout West Tennessee.
Present
Today, two of the Downstairs Galleries feature the Ewers Collection, donated by the late Marge and Dr. William Ewers of Nashville. This remarkable collection includes works by Frederick Remington, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Roman Petrovich Tyrtov (Erte), Tony Bennett and other notable artists, offering visitors a rich and diverse artistic experience.