The mission of the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette is to celebrate the power of art to inspire, challenge, and instruct our community through collections, exhibitions, and programs. Visionary leaders founded the Art Museum in 1909 as the Lafayette Art Association, with the purpose to stimulate and encourage interest in art and to give annual exhibitions, and to establish and maintain permanent collections of works of art. The Art Museum of Greater Lafayette has been a partner with the Greater Lafayette community, Purdue University and Ivy Tech Community College and has grown with the support of its citizens. The Permanent Collection began with the acquisition of F. Louis Mora’s painting “Cruise of the Elida” in 1911. Today the collection includes nearly 1,000 objects and focuses on 19th and 20th century American art with a special emphasis on the art of Indiana. Indiana Artists Collection The collection includes works by pioneer Indiana artists George Winter; members of the Richmond Group, including John Elwood Bundy and Frank Girardin; members of the Hoosier Group, including T.C. Steele and Otto Stark; and members of the Brown County Art Colony, including Will Vawter, Carl Graf, Georges La Chance, and Edward K. Williams. Between 1998 and 2001, Robert L. and Ellen E. Haan donated 47 works of Indiana artists to the Art Museum’s collection. Laura Anne Fry Rookwood Pottery Collection The Museum holds a special collection of Rookwood pottery by Laura Ann Fry, founder of the Lafayette Art Association, precursor to today’s Art Museum of Greater Lafayette. Today the Art Museum has the single largest collection of her pottery, including Rookwood works from 1885 to 1896. The Edward and Anna Stowe Akeley Collection of Mexican Modernists The Akeley’s contributed many of the works collected by them on trips to Mexico to the Art Museum. The collection includes works by Laura Carrington, Guillermo Meza, Jose Clemente Orozco, Raul Anguiano and Rafael Coronel. The Alice Baber Memorial Collection of Abstract Art In tribute to the life of this New York artist, works of the artists and her contemporaries were donated to the Art Museum. Other artists represented include Ann Chwatsky, Connie Fox, Jean Reynal, T. Barick, J. Bogley, Jeanne Reynal, Thomas Sills, Elaine De Kooning, Yun James Yohe, Paul Jenkins, Rosa Sanin, Daniel Weldon and Manoucher Yektai.

Art Museum programs, workshops, and art classes serve children and adults of all nationalities, ethnic backgrounds, physical abilities, and race. Docent-led tours enhance visits by student and adult gallery visitors. Recently, we entered into a partnership with Oakland High School to provide art classes for their students, which otherwise would not be offered. Purdue University students use our Permanent Collection archives as a resource for Art Appreciation and Art History classes. In partnership with the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette has led a statewide initiative to develop Art Smart: Indiana, a web-based educational program for grade-four elementary students, which is a state-approved curriculum involving Social Studies, Math and Science.