Benton Museum of Art

The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, known colloquially as the Benton, is an art museum at Pomona College in Claremont, California. It was completed in 2020, replacing the Montgomery Art Gallery, which had been home to the Pomona College Museum of Art (PCMA) since 1958. It houses a collection of approximately 20,000 items, including Italian Renaissance panel paintings, indigenous American art and artifacts, and American and European prints, drawings, and photographs. The museum is free to the public. History Montgomery Art Gallery building in 2023 Pomona College established a separate School of Art and Design in 1892, and incorporated it into the college c. 1913. In 1958, responding to increased postwar interest in the arts, the Gladys K. Montgomery Art Center was completed adjacent to the art department in Rembrandt Hall, enabling the college to present its permanent collection in one place for the first time. A $280,000 expansion (equivalent to $2.6 million in 2025) completed in. Design The museum's lobby ( view as a 360° interactive panorama ) The museum is located near the southwestern edge of Pomona's campus, adjacent to the Village, Claremont's downtown commercial district. It was designed collaboratively by Boston -based Machado and Silvetti Associates and California-based Gensler, and cost $44 million to build. The building is U-shaped around a courtyard, and is constructed primarily of cast-in-place concrete, with stained heavy timbers as an ornamental accent. It features several visual axes. Collections Collections vault at the museum The Benton houses a collection of approximately 20,000 items, including Italian Renaissance panel paintings, approximately 6,000 Pre-Columbian to 20th-century indigenous American art and artifacts, and American and European prints, drawings, and photographs. Many of the museum's exhibitions focus on Southern Californian artists. Former director Kathleen Howe described its primary focus as "contemporary art with an edge". The museum oversees several notable public artworks on Pomona's campus, including.