“A wonderful experience. We will come again." Jim Rolino, Athens

“Remarkable collection. What a surprise!” Michele Atwood, Newnan
“A gem” Jeanne Faber, Pennington, NJ

Welcome to our beautiful art museum! Let us help you discover the joy and adventure of exploring and enjoying the legacies of international visual art masters throughout history. We look forward to meeting you!

Mission

Founded in 2003 by Michele Bechtell, the Madison Museum of Fine Art (MMoFA) is a 501-c-3 tax exempt charitable not-for-profit educational art history museum with exhibition galleries, teaching gardens, Museum Store, and Tea Terrace. A collecting institution, MMoFA preserves, interprets, and imaginatively displays original works of art by nationally and internationally recognized visual art masters in a lively, intimate, pedestrian-friendly atmosphere for the education, edification, and spiritual nourishment of all persons living and traveling in the Southeastern US. As an educational institution, the Museum offers free permanent and traveling exhibitions, lectures, film, educational programming, and an extra classroom setting to study original objects to supplement the inter-disciplinary curricula of public, private, and home schools in the region.

Vision

The vision of MMoFA is to be a superbly operated internationally respected intimate visual art history museum system with a distinguished permanent collection, self-sustaining endowment, habitual visitation, engaging and well-attended educational programs, and to do so with sufficient institutional strength to delight many generations to come.

Facilities

A boutique style art musem, MMoFA features interior viewing galleries that display exquisite works in the Museum collection and temporary exhibitions. Integral to the Museum are its outdoor teaching gardens that display contemporary sculpture amid regional botanicals and teach visitors how to interpret important works in art history. Examples include the Museum's Whistler Butterfly Garden that educates the public about American born visual art master James Whistler and the Museum's Paradise Garden that teaches visitors how to read the garden symbolism in religious art of the Middle Ages. MMoFA also features a Museum Store and a Museum Cafe to extend the viewing pleasure. The MMoFA website provides art enthusiasts from around the world the opportunity to visit the Museum in person and by virtual tour.

Community Need

MMoFA fills an important community need. Everyone deserves access to quality art and cultural assets. And MMoFA is the only fine art history museum between Augusta and Atlanta (over 3 ½ hour E-W drive) and the only fine art history museum between Athens and the Florida state border (a 4 hour N-S drive). Many local residents have never entered a museum of any kind.

Educational Philosophy

MMoFA advocates life-long learning grounded in the Four Essential R’s: Reading, wRiting, aRithmatic, and aRt. We value visual art as an essential human activity, a fundamental God given operation of the human mind that expresses intuitive, often undiscussable, perceptions of human experience, different yet equally powerful to scientific knowledge. A dynamic educational institution, MMoFA believes that every individual deserves access to quality art and culture in daily life. And we celebrate those visual artists who make exceptional contributions to our collective cultural inheritance. To teach visual art literacy, MMoFA follows a set of educational principles that leverage the art we display, foster dialog with living and deceased art enthusiasts, and weave the arts and culture into leisure time. To enhance programming, MMoFA relies on a talented team of volunteers and has forged numerous partnerships with generous patrons who steadfastly support MMoFA in its Mission.

Museum Goals