Spencer Museum of Art myspace

The Spencer's permanent collection is deep and diverse, currently numbering nearly 36,000 artworks and artifacts in all media. The collection spans the history of European and American art from ancient to contemporary, and includes broad and significant holdings of East Asian art. The museum is currently integrating into its holdings a large ethnographic collection that includes Native American, African, Latin American and Australian objects. Through its collection, exhibitions, and public programming, the Spencer presents distinctive opportunities for dialogue, scholarship, and reflection. Public programs offer many possibilities for students, faculty, and the community to engage with artists and thinkers from around the world. Varied programs for school children, KU students, and the public include guided tours, gallery conversations, children's art appreciation classes and gallery activities, lectures, workshops, films, and music and dance performances. The Student Advisory Board, a multidisciplinary group of undergraduate and graduate students, offers one of many opportunities for volunteer involvement. The Spencer organizes exhibitions of local, regional, national and international interest. For example, Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist presents the first nationally touring retrospective of the work of Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), a native of Topeka, Kansas, who became the foremost visual artist of the Harlem Renaissance. The exhibition opens at the Spencer in September 2007 and will travel to major venues in Nashville, Washington, D.C., and New York City. A scholarly catalogue, co-published by the Spencer and Yale University Press, accompanies the exhibition. "Bali Woman" Maurice Sterne-circa 1913