The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is in the midst of a golden anniversary year that is much more than a 50th birthday.

Certainly there will be cake (including one by Charm City Cakes of Food Network's "Ace of Cakes" that replicates the museum), and a big party. But the programming also reflects all the factors that have come together to make the museum one of the most respected venues for American art in the country.

Its story began with Greensburg native Mary Marchand Woods (1873-1953), who traveled the world with her ambassador husband. They retired to a home near where the museum now stands, and Woods, preceded in death by her husband, stipulated that her sizable estate be used for the creation of a museum for the community.

The doors of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art opened at 11 a.m. on May 29, 1959, and at the same hour of the same day and month, 50 years later, the museum will celebrate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony with dignitaries, followed by tours and refreshments.

"Golden Reflections: The Fiftieth Anniversary Museum Ball" continues the commemorative weekend May 30 (black tie with a black-tie optional after-party, reservations required by Friday). May 31 is family day with cupcakes, karaoke and games from 1 to 4 p.m.

Weekly drawings are being held throughout the year for a free museum membership, and admission is free for those born or married in 1959 (33 to date). There's also free admission every second Thursday sponsored by the Snee-Reinhardt Charitable Foundation.

Behind-the-scenes individuals, including staff, board members, donors and volunteers who define such an institution, are acknowledged also. A free illustrated keepsake "50th anniversary magazine" produced by the museum details its history and recognizes many of the individual contributors, as does the current exhibition.

Museums frequently honor collectors and others who donate artworks, but "The Gift of Art" goes one further, displaying a "wish-list" of five paintings and a sculpture that would enhance the permanent collection should anyone feel inclined to purchase one.

"Gifts of art are critical to museums," says museum curator Barbara Jones, particularly in light of the escalating cost of American art in recent decades, and the difficulty of raising funds.

The available artworks, which range in price from $25,000 to $125,000, are by Robert Gwathmey, Roy Hilton, Thomas Lo Medico, Dale Nichols, Austin C. Wooster and Marguerite Zorach.

A popular vote has Lo Medico's figural sculpture "The Apprentice," plaster patinaed to resemble bronze, in the lead. I lean toward Nichols' 1937 painting "The Derelict," a lone tractor surrounded by empty rolling fields, which is far behind.

The other works displayed make for an eclectic exhibition, Jones' intent being to illustrate "the scope of the collection and the scope of the range of gifts."

Those include American fine, folk and decorative arts from the years 1750 to 1950.

Gifts come from artists, their families, collectors and estates. Sometimes the works themselves are donated; at others, money is given for acquisitions.

Often a gift comes as a surprise, Jones says. "You get a call from a lawyer and it just comes. Either it fits [the collection] or it doesn't."

The "Coal Tipple" by Walter E. Baum, for example, was bequeathed to the museum by Greensburg attorney H. Reginald Belden, Jr.

"We didn't have a painting by [Baum] and it's nice to have that artist represented. [Mr. Belden] was a friend of the museum. He knew the museum very well and he knew our collection well. We didn't know he owned that painting."

Another big surprise followed a call from a lawyer representing the estate of Greensburg architect William Jamison, who said "some money" had been left the museum to set up an acquisitions fund.

"We didn't have a dedicated acquisitions fund," Jones says. "Then the lawyer called back and said the amount given was $1.2 million."

That generosity allowed the purchase of the notable Joy and R. David Brocklebank Collection of 251 Pennsylvania frakturs, one of which is displayed, expanding the area of folk art that the museum is building.

Throughout the permanent collection galleries, a small "gift package" marks artworks acquired by donation of some form or another, a hefty majority of works on display.

"Whether we can show [the artwork] is one of our primary guidelines" for accepting art, Jones says. "We don't want things relegated to the vault where they'll never see the light of day."

Other reasons to decline gifts include that they are not relevant to the collection (for example, European or outside its date range), duplicate what they have, or "condition issues."

But the appreciation of the role that community- and culture-minded individuals play in our public institutions is evident in this show, and in this celebratory year -- a practice we may all hope will continue.