Eskenazi Museum of Art

The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art is the art museum of Indiana University, located in Bloomington, Indiana. Founded in 1941 as the Indiana University Museum of Art, it holds approximately 45,000 objects spanning from ancient jewelry to modern masterworks, with about 1,400 works on display. The museum occupies a purpose-built structure designed by I.M. Pei and Partners, dedicated in 1982, and serves as a major teaching and public resource within a major American public research university. Its renaming in 2016 followed the largest cash gift in the institution's history, reflecting its continued growth in national standing.

The museum opened in 1941 in gallery space within Mitchell Hall under Henry Radford Hope, newly appointed head of the Department of Fine Arts. Its inaugural exhibition, Sixteen Brown County Painters, opened on November 21, 1941. Establishing a permanent collection proved delayed until after World War II. The turning point came in 1955, when collectors James and Marvelle Adams donated a terracotta bust by Aristide Maillol, prompting Hope to pursue a permanent collection in earnest. The William Lowe Bryan Memorial Fund, established by James Adams in honor of the university's tenth president, financed nearly all early acquisitions. Hope himself contributed significant works, including Pablo Picasso's The Studio. The museum relocated to the Fine Arts building in 1962, supported by modest annual budgeting initiated by University Chancellor Herman B Wells and special allocations from the Board of Trustees. In 1968, Hope hired Thomas T. Solley as Assistant Director, who became Director in 1971. Solley, trained as an architect, spearheaded the campaign for a dedicated building, engaging I.M. Pei and Partners in 1974. The new building opened in 1982 with three permanent collection galleries and one special exhibition space; under Solley, holdings grew from 4,000 to 30,000 works. Adelheid M. Gealt succeeded Solley in 1987, serving until 2015 and securing a 2012 Andrew J. Mellon Foundation endowment challenge grant of $500,000. David A. Brenneman became the Wilma E. Kelley Director in 2015. The 2016 $15 million gift from Sidney and Lois Eskenazi funded a comprehensive renovation, prompting the museum's renaming. Closure for renovation began in May 2017, with reopening in November 2019. In late 2023, the museum canceled a planned retrospective of Palestinian artist Samia Halaby, a 1963 MFA graduate; the university cited concerns about guaranteeing exhibit integrity, while Halaby reported staff concerns over her social media posts regarding Palestinian causes. Free expression organizations including PEN America and the National Coalition Against Censorship called for reinstatement, and Michigan State University's Broad Art Museum hosted the exhibition in June 2024. Mindy N. Besaw was hired as Wilma E. Kelley Director in 2025.

The collection of approximately 45,000 objects is organized across four permanent collection galleries. The Jane Fortune Gallery presents European and American art through the 18th century. The Modern and Contemporary gallery holds European and American art from the 19th century onward. The Ancient, Asian, and Islamic Art gallery contains ancient Chinese porcelains, Japanese paintings, and classical Greek, Roman, and Etruscan vases, bronzes, and mosaics. The Raymond and Laura Wielgus Gallery of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous Art of the Americas covers non-Western traditions. Three additional spaces host rotating exhibitions: the Special Exhibitions gallery, the Time-based Media Gallery for film and new media, and the Rhonda and Anthony Moravec Gallery within the Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Center. The Burton Y. Berry Collection of Ancient Jewelry, comprising 5,000 pieces from across the ancient world, forms a particular strength. The print holdings include works by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Francisco de Goya. German and Austrian Expressionism is represented through August Macke, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Alexej von Jawlensky, Max Beckmann, and Emil Nolde. Early modern and modern masters include Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Georges Braque, Kurt Schwitters, Frank Stella, Romare Bearden, and Joseph Cornell. Italian paintings range from Niccolo Di Buonacorso and Apollonio di Giovanni to Taddeo Gaddi. Nineteenth-century European works include Jean-Léon Gérome, Charles-François Daubigny, Gustave Caillebotte (L'Yerres, pluie), and Claude Monet (Le Pont d'Argenteuil).

Signature works anchor the collection's international reputation. Pablo Picasso's The Studio counts among the early acquisitions, joined by paintings by Picasso and Jackson Pollock in the modern holdings. Mark Rothko and Georges Braque are represented, the latter by The Napkin Ring. Alfred Stevens's Jouer avec un chien also figures in the collection. The ancient jewelry collection assembled by Burton Y. Berry provides encyclopedic coverage of Mediterranean and Near Eastern adornment. The Expressionist and modern groupings offer concentrated depth in early twentieth-century European and American art, while the print collection's Dürer, Rembrandt, and Goya impressions constitute works of singular scholarly and aesthetic importance.

The present museum building was designed by I.M. Pei and Partners and dedicated in 1982. The architectural commission emerged from Director Thomas T. Solley's conviction that a trained architect should lead the institution toward a purpose-built structure, and from his deliberate selection of an architect with demonstrated museum-design experience. The completed building provided three galleries for permanent collections and one for special exhibitions. The structure is characterized by brutalist architecture. A 2016-2019 renovation, funded by the Eskenazi gift, updated the building comprehensively. In 2007, a light installation was inaugurated to mark the building's twenty-fifth anniversary; originally temporary, it proved sufficiently popular with the campus community to be retained permanently, composed of low-consumption LED lamps.

The museum is located on the Indiana University Bloomington campus at 1133 E. Seventh Street in Bloomington, Indiana. Admission is free. The museum operates as an integral unit of Indiana University, serving both the academic community and the general public. Following its renovation closure from May 2017 to November 2019, the museum resumed public operations with updated galleries and facilities. Its present role combines teaching, research, and public exhibition functions within the university's broader educational mission.