On Thursday, November 7, 2019, the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art in Bloomington, Indiana reopened the doors of its $30 million renovated I. M. Pei building, which houses the museum’s more than 45,000 objects, including serves as a center for education for more than 11,000 Indiana University students as well as nearly 5,000 K-12 students.

     “I am very excited about sharing our museum and its magnificent collections. There is great potential for learning and inspiration that we can finally unveil through four new study centers, three new art study rooms, educational programming and staff who are eager to engage with our visitors and the IU community,” said David A. Brenneman, the museum’s Wilma E. Kelley director. “Through the renovation and our recommitment to serving as a teaching museum, we are honoring the original vision of our founders, Herman B Wells and Henry Radford Hope.”

 

Two exhibitions will be on view: Re/New: Recent Acquisitions by Contemporary Artists and Jim Dine: Pinocchio, Geppetto, and Other Personal Metaphors. Re/New celebrates the Museum’s commitment to studying, exhibiting and collecting contemporary art. The installation in the new Featured Exhibitions Gallery displays 51 works by 45 artists, all acquired in the past five years, including work from Robert Mapplethorpe, Kara Walker, Vik Muniz, Ai Weiwei and more. This exhibition is divided into five themes: Beauty and Identity; Race, Ethnicity and Community; Social Activism; Nature and Place; and Abstraction.

Jim Dine: Pinocchio, Geppetto, and Other Personal Metaphors is the inaugural exhibition in the new Prints, Drawings and Photographs Gallery. The exhibition includes the artist’s gift of his 44-plate Pinocchio series, a recent self-portrait print and The Crash, his first print series. Also included are other works from the museum’s collection that highlight Dine’s interests in poetry, psychoanalysis, transformation and the fine art of drawing.

For the complete schedule of events, see: https://artmuseum.indiana.edu.