UTICA — Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, the 104-year-old arts organization in Utica, has rebranded to clarify their identity and shared their vision for the future of the arts campus.

The organization will now be known as Munson.

“With our ten-syllable, double-hyphenated name, we found that people didn’t understand the meaning of it. No one used it fully. People would often use the surnames, and never in the right order. For a multi-faceted arts organization, with the presence of what we do in the region and with the National Museum of Art collection, it was really important to have a strong brand and a strong name that represented us fully,” said Munson President and CEO Anna Tobin D’Ambrosio. “With the new name, we are still honoring our history and our heritage and bringing that forward, but also positioning us for the future.”

Munson’s former name reflected the three generations of families that established the arts organization. Descendents of the Munson family married into the Williams and Proctor families, all of which were wealthy families from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Through inheriting art collections, the Williams and Proctor families amassed, family members from the early 20th century established a concept for a cultural organization, chartering the institute in 1919 and opening it to the public nearly 20 years later in 1936. The organization’s current name reflects the main lineage of those family members who established the organization.

A special event was held inside Munson’s Museum of Art building on Tuesday, where members of the organization were joined by D’Ambrosio, Munson’s Board of Directors, and local officials as they witnessed the rebranding happen in real time.

PrattMWP, the Utica extension of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, will also be rebranded to reflect Munson’s changes. The extension, located on Munson’s campus, will be known as Pratt Munson, with the changes to be implemented for the 2023–2024 academic year this August.

With a new name also comes a new logo for the organization. Munson’s new logo, which seemingly looks like a square grid, is a representation of a bird’s-eye view of Munson’s Museum of Art building. The typography and color palette in Munson’s branding are also both symbolic of the organization’s roots.

The organization has more in store for the future of the museum and its campus. Improvements to the campus green spaces, updates to the classrooms and teaching studios, as well as a redeveloped interactive family gallery, are all in the beginning stages.

“Beginning today, the past, the present and the future of art thrive together at Munson,” D’Ambrosio said. “We were established as a cultural anchor with the mission to create transformational arts experiences available to everyone and our founding family could never have envisioned how much Munson has exceeded their expectations, how we have grown from the two-family homes and stables they donated, to 10 acres and 25 buildings, two of which are listed on the national and state historic registers, from a few casual employees to a professional staff of nearly 180, from a few kid’s art classes to a nationally recognized and accredited College of Art and Design, from the family’s paintings and decorative arts holdings to the internationally recognized museum of art collection of more than 12,000 art works.”

“An outcome of our strategic plan and the recently completed campus master plan is a brave vision that builds on our strengths to prepare us to better serve our community for generations,” D’Ambrosio added.

For more information on Munson, visit munson.art.