In spite of "an unfortunate deaccessioning" of some eighty works that were thought to be duplicates or less than first quality during the tenure of Renaissance scholar Frederick Hartt (director 1946-47), the museum retains strong holdings from the Gilded Age and earlier. Museum directors after Hartt renewed the museum’s mandate to collect and show contemporary art, adding depth to the collection as well as expanding holdings to include the art of underrepresented American cultural and ethnic groups. Under current director Suzannah Fabing, the museum has seen the addition of significant gifts, including the collection of Mr. and Mrs. William A. Small, Jr. (Susan Spencer, class of 1948) with more than one hundred works of contemporary art.  Fabing also helped arrange a unique cooperative venture with the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum and the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College to provide a future home for the extraordinary collection of Norma Marin, daughter-in-law of painter John Marin.

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