Just so we’re all clear on this: The Amon Carter Museum is officially changing its name to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. It’s essentially a way of marking the museum’s successive expansion from its origins in the American West artworks of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. Way back in the ’60s, the museum had already declared it wasn’t going to be limited to ‘cowboy art’ — so consider this a reminder as the museum gears up for its 50th anniversary in January.

The full release:

Amon Carter Museum Adds ‘of American Art’ to Its Name

FORT WORTH, Texas—Museum Director Ron Tyler announces that the Amon Carter Museum has modified its name: the longtime institution is now known as the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.

“The museum was established in 1961 to house Amon G. Carter’s collection of paintings and sculpture by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, the two greatest artists of the American West,” Tyler says. “But from the beginning, the Amon G. Carter Foundation and the Carter family intended the museum to be a vibrant and evolving institution.

“Mitchell A. Wilder, the museum’s first director, believed the history of American art could be interpreted as the history of artists working on successive frontiers, both geographic and artistic. The Carter’s mission would ‘no longer be limited to western art,’ he said in an interview in 1967. Indeed, ‘to understand the West,’ he said, ‘the East must also be studied.’ In this new spirit of collecting, the museum acquired that year the modern masterpiece Blips and Ifs (1964) by Stuart Davis, and the museum’s holdings have continued to grow since then in fascinating ways.”

The museum now houses 300,000 objects, including landmark works by such paramount American artists as Winslow Homer, Georgia O’Keeffe, and John Singer Sargent. The museum also houses one of the largest collections of American photography in the country.

“Our new name doesn’t signify a shift in mission, but rather a clarification of what we’ve offered since the mid-1960s,” Tyler says. “The name change is a way to better communicate what visitors can expect when they come to the museum.”

With the museum’s 50th anniversary approaching in January 2011, Tyler says it was the right time for a name change.

“As we mark our 50th anniversary, we want to remind the public of all we have to offer,” Tyler says. “We have fantastic exhibitions and programs planned for the year, including a community celebration in August 2011. If you’ve never visited us before, we invite you to visit. And if you have, we hope to see you often in 2011. It will be a great year of American art.”

Admission is always free to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, located at 3501 Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth. For more information, visit www.cartermuseum.org.