Gifts from the Collection of Edna S. Beron, an installation honoring the memory of a longtime friend and supporter of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will be on view in the Museum's galleries of 20th-Century Art beginning October 8, 1996. Mrs. Beron was equally devoted to the work of American craftspeople and to contemporary painting, sculpture and photography, and assembled a remarkable art collection during the course of the last three decades. Mrs. Beron was for many years active in the Associates program at the Museum, and she served on the Committee for 20th-Century Art for 10 years until her death in 1995. She was also involved with a number of other arts institutions, including the American Crafts Museum in New York where she served on the Board of Trustees and chaired the Collectors' Circle, and the Boca Raton Museum of Art in Boca Raton, Florida, where she was a member of the Board of Directors.

This presentation includes a selection of paintings, sculpture and craft objects bequeathed to the Museum as well as given during Mrs. Beron's lifetime. Included is the first painting that Mrs. Beron purchased -- Young Love by Philip Evergood -- as well as the last object she bought, in 1955 -- Love Boat, a soup tureen by the centenarian American ceramist Beatrice Wood. The installation also features sculptures by Scott Burton, Lucas Samaras and Nancy Graves, a painting by Robert Gwathmey, and objects by Richard DeVore, Ed Rossbach and Katherine Westphal. Mrs. Beron's bequest also included gifts to the departments of Costume and Textiles, and Prints, Drawings and Photographs.

Gifts from the Collection of Edna S. Beron will be on view through November, 1996.