Fleischer Museum opened in 1990 and has served as the cultural focal point of the Perimeter Center and the former headquarters of Franchise Finance Corporation of America (FFCA).
Since the opening, Fleischer Museum has hosted numerous outside exhibitions and concerts along with the private collection of Morton Fleischer, FFCA founder, and his wife Donna. In August 2001, GE Capital purchased FFCA along with the corporate headquarters building. The collection of American Impressionism California School, 1890-1930s and Soviet Impressionism, 1930-1980s was then going to be dispersed at auction. The City of Scottsdale asked the Fleischers to consider preservation of the collection in it current form and in return they would build a new Scottsdale Fleischer Museum to house the artwork. The City Council passed a proposal to maintain Fleischer Museum in its current location and GE Capital consented to allow the Museum to remain open until the new facility is completed. Scottsdale Fleischer Museum will be relocated to the Loloma Arts District on Marshall Way and First Street with a completion date in February 2004.
Approximately one-third of the collection is on view in the museum at any one time. Included in the collection of American Impressionism, California School and Russian and Soviet Impressionism are varied genres that include landscapes, architectural and figurative subjects, as well as still lifes. Currently, the collection includes around four-hundred paintings.
The characteristics of the Impressionist painting style perfectly capture the radiant beauty of the California landscape. The majesty of the mountains, the warmth of the sun, the sparkling light reflected from the ocean, the plethora of colorful wildflowers, and the ocean breeze are some of the sensory experiences embodied in these wonderful paintings.
The Russian and Soviet Realism paintings, also visually stunning, are particularly fascinating in their historical context. From the late 1930s, the Soviets commissioned its pre-eminent artists to create on canvas the Utopias they believed Communism would achieve for the Soviet Union.
