The Diplomat
The Spain-US Council Foundation has awarded the 10th Bernardo de Gálvez Award to the Meadows Museum in Dallas, Texas, the art gallery of Southern Methodist University (SMU), which holds one of the largest and most complete collections of Spanish art outside our borders, with works by El Greco, Velázquez, Zurbarán, Murillo, Goya, Miró, Picasso and Tàpies.
The Award, named after the politician and military man from Malaga, Bernardo de Gálvez (1746-1786), former governor of Louisiana, founder of the city of Galveston, Texas, and a key figure in the American War of Independence, honors those American individuals or institutions that have contributed to improving understanding between the two countries.
“We are honored that our mission to preserve, study and promote Spanish art and culture in the state of Texas and, by extension, throughout the country, has been recognized with this award,” said Samuel S. Holland, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts, the museum’s unit at SMU. According to the former director of the museum from 2006 until his death in 2021, Mark A. Roglán, the Meadows Museum has functioned, since its founding in 1965, as a true “permanent cultural embassy of Spain in the United States”.
Those responsible for the institution also claim the particularity of being the only museum linked to a university exclusively devoted to Spanish art in the United States. “The Meadows Museum is absolutely unique in the world,” said the museum’s interim director and curator, Amanda Dotseth. “We fulfill our mission through the organization of international exhibitions involving the loan of works, scholarly publications, our well-established educational programs aimed at all audiences, and also through collaborations with cultural institutions, both in the United States and beyond our borders,” she continued.
The museum was founded in 1965 after the donation to SMU of the collection of oil magnate and philanthropist Algur H. Meadows (1899-1978), who was determined to create “a little Prado for Texas” in Dallas. Thanks to the successive acquisition campaigns carried out in the following years, the Meadows Museum has managed to build an impressive collection of Spanish art from the 10th to the 21st century, in which the great masters stand out: El Greco, Velázquez, Ribera, Murillo and Goya. Selected paintings by Zuloaga, Sorolla, Miró, Dalí, Picasso, Fortuny, Gris or Tàpies complete the catalog of works of art that the more than 50,000 visitors on average that the museum receives each year can admire.
For the past two decades, the Meadows Museum has cultivated a fruitful relationship with leading cultural institutions in both Spain and the United States, and has regularly collaborated in the organization of temporary exhibitions and research programs with such prestigious museums as the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Frick Collection in New York and the San Diego Museum of Art. Following in this wake, the museum maintains an intense exchange with cultural entities such as the Mapfre Foundation, the Casa de Alba or the Juan March Foundation, among other collections and centers.
With the Bernardo de Gálvez Award, the Spain-U.S. Council Foundation seeks to honor and publicize the work of those U.S. individuals or institutions whose work, example or dedication have promoted cooperation between Spain and the United States, contributed to improving reciprocal knowledge or strengthened the relationship between the two countries. Since the first edition was held in 2007, the winners have included former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, the Hispanic Society of America, art historian Jonathan Brown, former U.S. Ambassador to Spain Richard Gardner, Senators Bob Menendez and Tim Kaine, the Ford Motor Company, historian and Hispanist Stanley G. Payne and the Library of Congress.
