The Trout Museum of Art

Founded in 1960 as Appleton Gallery of Art (later Appleton Art Center), The Trout Museum of Art is located in the Reigel Building in downtown Appleton.

The Trout Museum of Art’s mission is to excite the community about the visual arts. The activities which allow The Trout Museum of Art to fulfill its mission include: exhibitions, educational programming and special events such as the annual Art at the Park artist exhibitor festival, lectures, workshops, family fun days, and a biennial exhibit for local artists.

At our beginnings in 1960, the Appleton Artists Guild set out to provide educational opportunities for local artists, create a suitable viewing gallery, and amass a permanent collection. Sharing and critiquing artwork and technique had been the very first activities pursued by the guild. We established our first gallery on Morrison Street in 1972 as the Appleton Gallery of Art, and moved to our current location on College Avenue as the Appleton Art Center in 2002. The 2010 Trout gift realizes our longtime hope to have a permanent collection of visual art, now as The Trout Museum of Art.

The Trout Collection is an eclectic mix of over 150 museum-quality works of art, including American, European, Asian and African paintings, sculptures and other decorative objects, representing over 400 years of art history. Each work of art in the collection is an eyewitness to a time and place — near, far, past, or present.

The collection was assembled during the past 40 years by Dr. Monroe E. and Sandra Trout, who then gifted it to the Appleton Art Center in 2010 along with a $1 million endowment to preserve, protect and promote the collection. Their generosity allows us to have a permanent collection of visual art right here in Northeast Wisconsin.