In 1959, a gift of 53 Renaissance and Baroque paintings and sculptures from Samuel H. Kress, a native of nearby Cherryville, Pennsylvania, brought the museum to a new level.

The Kress gift served to encourage community visionaries and museum friends to purchase and refurbish a building, formerly the First Presbyterian Church, built in 1902, suitable to house the new collection.

[3] Hirsch's observations portend the Slow Movement that arose over 25 years later and encouraged a renewed, attentive appreciation of the world, including of fine art.

The museum later began hosted Slow Art days in 2011 to acknowledge the benefits of quiet, intense reflection.

The project added 7,900 square feet (730 m2) of new classroom and gallery space, including a corner cafe, an expanded gift shop, and a new all-glass façade to the museum's Fifth Street side.

The expansion, which was the museum's first since 1975, had been initially proposed in 1999 but ended up to be a significant reduction from the $32 million, 45,000-square-foot (4,200 m2) addition originally planned.