Eskenazi Museum of Art

The museum's holdings span an extraordinary sweep of human creativity. Its galleries move from the ancient world, with artifacts of early Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultures, through the arts of Asia, Africa, and the Americas, into European painting and sculpture, and on to the modern and contemporary era. It is the kind of encyclopedic collection more often found in a major city museum than on a university campus.

That breadth reflects the museum's mission to teach and to expose students and the public to the full range of art history. Notable works by significant artists turn up throughout the galleries, rewarding the curious visitor who wanders with an open eye. Because the museum serves a great research university, its collection is also deep in areas that support scholarship, giving it strengths that a casual visitor might not expect.

The museum's home was designed by I. M. Pei, one of the most celebrated architects of the twentieth century, known worldwide for buildings such as the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. His design for the Eskenazi is a bold exercise in geometry, all sharp triangular forms and clean modern lines, a striking contrast to the traditional limestone architecture that defines much of the Indiana University campus.

The building is not merely a container for art but a piece of design worth studying in its own right. Its angular atrium and carefully composed spaces shape how you move through the galleries and how the art is seen. For lovers of architecture, the chance to experience a Pei building in the heart of the Midwest is reason enough to visit, and it makes the museum doubly rewarding.

Indiana University's Bloomington campus is one of the most beautiful in the country, built largely of the honey-colored limestone quarried in the surrounding hills. The stone that faces so many landmark buildings across America comes from this region, and the campus shows off its warm, dignified beauty. The museum sits amid this leafy, historic setting, an easy stroll from the campus's older quarters.

Bloomington itself is a lively college town in the wooded hills of southern Indiana, with a walkable downtown, an active arts and music scene, and easy access to the natural beauty of the region. A museum visit fits naturally into a day of exploring the campus and the town, making the Eskenazi part of a larger cultural experience rather than an isolated stop.

The land the university stands on is part of the homelands of Native nations of the Ohio Valley. Indiana is the homeland of the Miami, who call themselves Myaamia, along with the Shawnee, the Lenape or Delaware, the Potawatomi, and the Wea, Piankeshaw, and Kickapoo. The state's name and history are bound up with these peoples, whose lands were taken through treaties and removals in the 1800s, and who remain living communities today.

The wooded hill country around Bloomington gives the town much of its character and its access to the outdoors. State parks, forests, and reservoirs lie within a short drive, and the region's limestone geology, which built the campus, also underlies its caves and quarries. A visit to the museum can easily expand into a wider exploration of this scenic and layered corner of Indiana.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.