The Albany Museum of Art (AMA) was originally incorporated by the State of Georgia in 1964 as the Southwest Georgia Art Association as a volunteer community group. The non-profit association was housed in a defunct hosiery mill and established a program of exhibitions, lectures and art classes. In 1969, through the generosity of W. Banks Haley, Jr., the association constructed a 5,000 square-foot facility on a small city park. Its first professional staff members were hired in 1975. Exhibitions were drawn from collections of the following organizations; SITES (Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service), IBM, Coca-Cola, Gulf States Paper and the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia. In 1980, the association changed its name to the Albany Museum of Art and implemented a successful $1.2 million capital campaign in order to construct a 20,000 square-foot museum facility.
Today the museum, accredited by the American Association of Museums, operates with an annual budget of approximately $450,000, and is governed by a Board of Trustees comprised of 27 elected members. Annual attendance is approximately 25,000 visitors. In 1996, the museum embarked and successfully completed a $2.5 million endowment/capital campaign, and upon completion of the campaign in 1998, received a bequest of $1.6 million. In 1999, the AMA opened the Raymond F. Evans Sporting Art Gallery and the children's interactive wing called AMAzing Space. In 2005, the Museum was recognized as Museum of the Year by the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries.