SLUMA Ranks as One of the Nation's Best College Museums
08/04/2017
SLUMA's second floor galleries are home to modern and contemporary art works.
College Values Online wrote that SLUMA "is so impressive it almost feels like a place that should exist in downtown New York or San Francisco, rather than at a university."
According to Petruta Lipan, director of the University's Museums, rankings like the recent College Values Online accolade stem from SLUMA's outreach efforts, exhibits and from a collection that includes a selection of Andy Warhol polaroids, prints by Helen Frankenthaler and displays of unique items from Jesuit history. SLUMA also collaborates with departments across the University, from geriatrics to history to the fine and performing arts, to incorporate the arts into SLU's courses.
The University's commitment to preserving and displaying world-caliber artworks, Lipan said, is part of a long Jesuit tradition of the contributing to the world through culture. National honors expose that tradition to the wider community, she explained. The museum has also been lauded by Best College Reviews and The St. Louis Business Journal in recent years.
"When you do a good job and you are recognized in the community, people want to be involved and want to be associated with you because it inspires them to get out and do good in the world," Lipan said.
SLU's Department of Museums and galleries includes SLUMA, The Samuel Cupples House Museum, McNamee Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA). SLUMA was established in 2002 in the former home of the St. Louis Club.
In addition to the acclaimed Urban Wanderers exhibit this summer, SLUMA is gearing up to host Return to Forever: Kathleen Brodeur and Edson Campos , which opens Aug. 25 and runs through Dec. 30, 2017.
For more information on this and other exhibits, visit the University's Museums for full listings.
The Saint Louis University Museum of Art (SLUMA) enriches the aesthetic component of a SLU education through the display of diverse cultural worlds and the sponsorship of educational programs related to the arts. The museum is a regional venue for scholarly presentation of works of historical art and artifacts and also is a venue for exhibitions of work by students, faculty, staff, alumni, benefactors and friends of the University. It brings together the University's permanent art collections with traveling exhibitions in an inviting setting which is available and accessible to the community, the region and the world.
Photo story by Amelia Flood, University Marketing and Communications.