About the Collection

The Trout Museum of Art 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 TMA collection was assembled during the past 40 years by Dr. Monroe E. and Sandra Trout, who pledged it to the Appleton Art Center (now the Trout Museum of Art) 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 the visual arts right here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Other works in the collection were collected or donated to/by the Appleton Art Center/Trout Museum of Art over the past 60 years. One selection of the permanent collection is always on display, rotating throughout the year, in the Spotlight on the Collection section at TMA.

The Trouts

Dr. Monroe E. Trout has been a force in the health care industry for over 40 years, serving on board and executive teams of various firms in the industry, including SAIC, Ineedmd, the University of California San Diego Foundation, Baxter International, Sterling Drug, Cytran, American Healthcare Systems and Cytyc Corp. In 1960, he married Sandra Lemke. During their 50 years of marriage, they collected art as they traveled the world. In 1995, Monroe Trout was accepted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. V iew his Horatio Alger biography. Dr. Trout attended the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. He later earned his law degree from Dickinson Law School. An Appleton native, Sandra Trout attended Appleton High School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Congratulations Dr. Trout, 2020 Semper Fidelis Award Recipient.