At the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW–Madison), the collection serves as a catalyst for exhibitions. It also grows from them.  “Recollection: Exhibiting the Collection,” on view Aug. 31-Dec. 23, celebrates this dynamic relationship with works that were included in the institution’s inaugural exhibition in 1970 and span five decades of collecting. The presentation offers historical context for the Chazen’s holdings ahead of the Museum’s newly designed permanent collection galleries opening later in the fall. The Chazen will return to pre-closure hours: Monday–Friday 8 a.m.–7 p.m. (gallery opens at 10 a.m.) and weekends 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

“Museum collections aren’t static, and every exhibition has a lasting impact on the Museum. ‘Recollection’ illustrates how collections and exhibitions have operated in tandem at the Chazen Museum of Art to shape the evolution of the Museum,” said Katherine Alcauskas, chief curator at the Chazen Museum of Art.

The Chazen Museum of Art, which opened as the Elvehjem Art Center in 1970, started with a collection of fewer than 5,000 objects. Its inaugural temporary exhibition brought together artworks already donated to UW–Madison alongside works lent by alumni and friends. Since then, 30 of those original loaned objects have officially entered the Chazen’s collection, which has grown to more than 25,000 works.

“Recollection” includes a partial recreation of that first exhibition, “19th and 20th Century Art from Collections of Alumni and Friends” (1970) alongside a miniature version of “Tradition and Innovation: The Human Figure in Contemporary Chinese Art” (2015), an exhibition challenging preconceptions about Chinese art, curated by then-museum director Russell Panczenko. With interpretive text drawn from the original labels, the installations demonstrate how language and tone have shifted over time. Pairing the exhibitions originally presented 45 years apart also emphasizes how the institution’s architectural expansion allowed the Chazen to collect and present larger works. Visitors will also see the shift in the role of museums, which have increasingly been tasked with addressing more contemporary, global subjects.

“Recreating influential exhibitions from the past isn’t just an exercise in nostalgia. It examines how the Chazen Museum of Art has evolved, highlighting the circular relationship between temporary exhibitions and the Museum’s holdings that consistently inspire fresh ideas,” said Alcauskas.

Other sections in the exhibition offer a closer look at the Chazen’s collection. The first includes artworks that made their Chazen debut in a temporary exhibition and later became a part of the collection. Among them are Gronk’s “Fragments of a Landscape” added to the collection in 1995 following the exhibition “Gronk: Iron Weave” and Gillian Jagger’s “Whorl,” added to the Chazen’s holdings in 2003 following “The Art of Gillian Jagger,” the first museum-organized exhibition of the artist’s work. “Recollection” also includes works acquired after “The Art of Judy Pfaff” (2001) and “Peter Gourfain: Clay, Wood, Bronze and Works on Paper” (2002).

The next section explores how the Chazen’s holdings helped spark ideas for major exhibitions across the institution’s history, including a second exhibition of Gourfain’s work, entitled “Peter Gourfain: Roundabout and Fate of the Earth Doors” (2005-2006). The exhibition includes several African artworks the Chazen collected in the 1990s as well as a couple made possible by a five-year gift from the Straus Family Foundation and featured in the recent “Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection” (2023). This exhibition strengthened the Chazen’s relationship with living artists and traveled to institutions in Georgia and Florida following its debut at the Chazen. “Recollection” features “Insistent Presence” works Ajarb Bernard Ategwa’s “Evening Picture” (2020) and François-Xavier Gbré’s “Piscine #1, Université Félix-Houphouët-Boigny, Riviera, Cocody, Abidjan” (2014).

Pierre Paul Prud’hon’s “Female Nude: Study for ‘The Soul Breaking the Ties That Bind It to Earth’” (1821-1823) was presented more than 40 years ago in “A Director’s Legacy,” a 1983 exhibition honoring the work of Katherine Harper Mead, who was killed in a car accident just two years after becoming the Museum’s director. “Recollection” also includes chairs designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Eero Saarinen that were featured in “Have a Seat: Chairs Then and Now.” The 1983 exhibition catered to visitors who were visually impaired with audio guides and large-print and braille interpretative material.

“The Chazen Museum of Art’s building, collection and exhibition program have all experienced immense growth since opening as the Elvehjem Art Center more than five decades ago. That growth continues with the reinstallation of the permanent collection,” said Amy Gilman, director of the Chazen Museum of Art and senior director for the arts and media at UW–Madison. “‘Recollection’ invites visitors to celebrate the Chazen’s journey in anticipation of a new object-centered approach that brings together works from across time, media and culture.”

“Recollection” is on view through Dec. 23. The Chazen will unveil its reinstalled permanent collection across 24 newly designed gallery spaces later in the fall.

About the Chazen Museum of Art Permanent Collection Reinstallation

The Chazen Museum of Art is reinstalling its permanent collection to offer broader experiences with art that provide multiple paths to engagement and meet visitors at their individual level of knowledge. In a departure from a traditional chronological installation, the Chazen will anchor each gallery with a deeply researched focus object. A constellation of additional works from across time, media and cultures will encourage deeper understanding, comparison and contrast. This long-contemplated project began several years ago with curators and subject matter experts conducting a deep exploration of the more than 25,000 artworks in the Chazen’s care. They also gathered visitor feedback through observation, surveys and small group meetings. This new model for exhibiting the Chazen’s holdings allows for more flexible approaches to collecting in the future and celebrates new forms of exploration with museum visitors as well as students, faculty and staff at UW–Madison.

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About the Chazen Museum of Art

The Chazen Museum of Art makes its home between two lakes on the beautiful campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Within walking distance of the state capitol, it sits squarely in the heart of a vibrant college town. The Chazen’s expansive two-building site is 166,000 square feet. The collection of approximately 25,000 works of art covers diverse historical periods, cultures and geographic locations, from ancient Greece, Western Europe and the Soviet Empire to Moghul India, 18th-century Japan and modern Africa. In fall 2026, the Chazen will debut its completely reinstalled collection galleries designed to provide more ways for visitors to understand, appreciate, interpret and look closely at the artwork. For more information: chazen.wisc.edu.

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Rosemary Chen

The Chazen Museum of Art extends its heartfelt condolences to the family of Rosemary Ho Chen, who passed away on August 12, 2026 at the age of 97. Together with her late husband, Simon K. Chen, Rosemary was one of the museum’s most generous benefactors. The donation of their Chinese art collection leaves a lasting imprint of culture, scholarship, and philanthropy on the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

“Rosemary and Simon Chen’s generosity has transformed the Chazen Museum of Art,” said Chazen Director Amy Gilman, noting that before the gift, the Chazen had few Chinese paintings and no works of Chinese calligraphy. “By entrusting us with their remarkable collection, Rosemary and Simon created a powerful bridge for cultural understanding and scholarly discovery. Their legacy ensures that generations of UW–Madison students, faculty, and visitors will have direct, immersive access to these impressive works.”

Rosemary’s life with Simon began on a shared journey. In 1948, while aboard a ship bound from China to the United States, she met Simon, a young mechanical engineering student. Smitten from the start, Simon told his sister that Rosemary was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen (and that he had just fourteen days to woo her). As both pursued their own studies, their connection strengthened, leading to their marriage in 1952, the same year Simon graduated UW–Madison with a PhD in mechanical engineering.

A diesel engine design expert, Simon built a distinguished engineering career and later went on to teach and mentor students as an adjunct faculty member in UW–Madison. Rosemary earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Barat College in Lake Forest, IL, and worked at UW–Madison’s McArdle Cancer Research Lab while Simon was in school. After raising their four children—  Margaret, Lillian, Vivian, and Victor—she worked for Simon’s consulting firm, Power Energy International.

Central to Simon and Rosemary’s shared life was a strong commitment to preserving Chinese culture and fostering a deeper appreciation for Chinese art in Wisconsin. Together, they gave to the Chazen a landmark collection of 125 works, dating from 1692 to 1996, now known as the Simon & Rosemary Chen Family Collection. It features calligraphy, paintings, woodblock prints, and rubbings, ranging from expressive landscapes to colorful representations of flora and fauna. It includes masterworks by early Qing artists Zhu Da and Yu Zhiding, Republican masters Gao Qifeng and Chang Dai-chien, as well as pieces reflecting the post-Cultural Revolution revival of traditional ink painting. In 2007, the museum celebrated their gift with the exhibition Hall of Self-Reliance: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from the Chen Collection.

The Chens also donated to UW–Madison’s Kohler Art Library more than 200 rare books and serials on Chinese art, acquired during travels to Taiwan in the 1970s and mainland China in the 1980s. Together with the artwork, these donations create an invaluable teaching and research resource for students and faculty.

Following Simon’s death in 2011, Rosemary remained a steadfast supporter of the Chazen, and her vision inspired her family to carry the torch forward. In 2022, her daughter Vivian Chen and son-in-law Andrew Swanson established the Simon and Rosemary Chen Family Fund for Asian Art at the museum and named one of the Chazen’s study rooms the Simon and Rosemary Chen Family Study Room for Works on Paper.

“Rosemary’s enduring dedication and the continuing support of the Chen family reminds us of the deep power art has to teach and inspire across generations,” said Gilman.

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Economic disparity, labor unrest, gender inequality, racial violence and fears of rising fascism defined the 1930s — and remain strikingly relevant today. The Chazen Museum of Art examines artists’ critical commentaries on the injustices plaguing the country during the Great Depression era in “Pressing Issues: Printmaking as Social Justice in 1930s United States.” On view Sept. 8-Dec. 13, the exhibition presents approximately 40 rarely displayed prints from the collection of the Krannert Art Museum, who organized the show, as well as six works from the Chazen’s collection.

Ida Abelman, My Father Reminisces, 1937. Lithograph. Allocated by the US Government. Commissioned through the New Deal art projects, 1943-4-1.

During the Great Depression, as the country faced unprecedented economic collapse, visual artists were put to work through relief efforts that aimed to provide living wages and bolster the spirits of the general public. The Federal Art Project One (FAP), established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, provided jobs to visual artists, musicians, actors and writers. The FAP was an arm of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), which employed 8.5 million people between 1935 and 1943. Many artists used the opportunity to depict scenes from everyday life while others used the platform to confront the country’s most urgent social and political crises. “Pressing Issues” foregrounds these artists, featuring works from Ida Abelman, John Stuart Curry, Minnetta Good, Harry Gottlieb, Riva Helfond, Carl G. Hill, Joseph Leboit, Nan Lurie and Herman Volz, among others.

“The artists in ‘Pressing Issues: Printmaking as Social Justice in 1930s United States’ used printmaking as a forceful tool to call out injustices shaping their world,” said Amy Gilman, director of the Chazen Museum of Art and senior director for the arts and media at UW–Madison. “Their work reminds us of the enduring role artists play in confronting oppression and the power of creativity in times of crisis. The Chazen Museum of Art invites visitors to consider how today’s artists continue to challenge systems of inequality and how art can help us envision a more just and equitable future.”

The exhibition is organized into four thematic sections: fighting for workers’ rights, women at work, condemning racial terror and denouncing fascism. Labor emerged as one of the most prevalent subjects in Depression-era art, often politicized through heroic depictions of male workers or sentimental portrayals of the rewarding value of manual labor. Yet many artists used printmaking to reveal the stark realities behind these narratives, drawing attention to exploitative working conditions — from child labor to the hazardous environments of coal mines and factories — and the daily economic struggles of those barely scraping by. William Gropper’s 1936 lithograph “Sweatshop” captures the bleak, weary faces of factory workers hunched over their machines in a powerful commentary on the exhausting toll of working-class life.

Florence Kent, Jewish Refugees, 1935–1943, lithograph, allocated by the US Government, commissioned through the New Deal art projects, 1943-4-210.

“Child Labor” by Ida Abelman highlights textile production and agriculture as two industries that often relied on child workers in the early 20th century. She visually merges scenes of girls sewing in factories with boys harvesting crops into the shape of a dollar sign, emphasizing how companies profited from underage labor. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act aimed to curb these abuses by regulating youth employment. It banned dangerous work for anyone under 18, limited most jobs for children under 16, introduced a minimum wage of 25 cents per hour and capped the workweek to 44 hours.

Nan Lurie addresses race and unemployment in her surrealist-inspired lithograph “Technological Improvements.” The title refers to new machinery that led to layoffs and fewer job opportunities. The print depicts a line of African American men waiting outside a brick building near a construction site, unaware of a nearby sign that states, “No Help Wanted.” In the background, a giant construction claw appears to eject three ghostlike figures into the back of the formed line, symbolizing workers whose labor is no longer needed.

Chet La More, Civilians, ca. 1937. Lithograph. Allocated by the US Government, Commissioned through the New Deal art projects, 1943-4-231

Prints by Florence Kent, Chet La More and Joseph Leboit portray the struggles of Jewish refugees fleeing Germany, confronting rising fascism and the discrimination they faced amid a period of national isolationism. In “Refugees,” Leboit presents a harrowing scene of people forced to navigate a hostile world without guidance or support. At the center of the print, two women and a child are hunched over, carrying their few possessions as they traverse a desolate landscape of dead trees and destroyed buildings while a fierce wind sweeps around them. The roots of a fallen tree in the foreground seem to trap them, reinforcing the feeling of being both estranged from their homeland and disenfranchised in their new country.

Condemning and exposing the injustices of their time, artists of the tumultuous 1930s boldly used printmaking as a form of protest, commentary and resistance. “Pressing Issues” positions the prints as powerful reminders of the vital role artists play in shaping public consciousness, showcasing art’s ability to document, critique and inspire change.

“Pressing Issues: Printmaking as Social Justice in 1930s United States,” curated by Kathryn Koca Polite, is organized by Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “Pressing Issues” is sponsored in part by the College of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; the International Fine Print Dealers Association Foundation; and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. Support for the exhibition at the Chazen Museum of Art is generously provided by The Anonymous Fund.

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Chazen staff Kel Murray (left) and Leigh Holmes maneuver Wisconsin Farm Scene into place. The 1941 painting by John Steuart Curry serves as the focus object in gallery 11.

UPDATE: Temporary exhibitions on the first and second floors of the Chazen building, along with the Café, are open daily. We aim for a phased opening of the collection galleries on the third floors of both buildings starting in October.

When the doors reopen at the Chazen Museum of Art this fall, visitors won’t simply return to a familiar museum — they’ll step into a new way of seeing.

That’s because UW–Madison’s art museum has rethought everything —from the less-obvious links between its works to the ways people experience art. It emptied all of its collection galleries and is reinstalling paintings, sculpture, prints, and ceramics in ways that will feel less like a march through art history and more like a series of delightful discoveries.

Every gallery space will revolve around a single “focus object,” a work chosen to anchor connections across the museum’s collection of more than 25,000 pieces. Artworks from different centuries and cultures will appear next to each other. They’ll be linked by shared ideas, themes and approaches rather than strict timelines or geography. Visitor favorites will be presented in new ways alongside works that haven’t been on view before.

“It’s less of an instruction manual and more of an invitation,” says Chazen Director Amy Gilman. “We want it to feel more personal and approachable without sacrificing depth. It’s a chance for people to move through the galleries at their own pace, follow what catches their attention and trust their instincts about what they experience.”

The goal is to spark curiosity from the moment a visitor walks in, whether they are longtime museum goers, first-year students or someone wandering into an art museum for the first time.

Katherine Alcauskas reviews a checklist as part of reinstallation work at the Chazen.

Chief Curator Katherine Alcauskas said the Chazen wanted to move away from traditional hierarchies that can make some works seem more important than others. “By centering each gallery on one object, we’re building outward from that piece and uncovering unexpected stories and connections throughout the collection,” she says. “We hope you’ll discover works you maybe never noticed before, or even leave with a new favorite artwork you didn’t expect to find.”

Chazen staff didn’t just think about the art itself. They studied how people actually experience museums: how long they spend looking at art, what kinds of information they want and what makes different types of visitors feel either welcomed or intimidated.

That research led to gallery text that will be more concise, comprehensive, and inviting. It informed art arrangement and gallery seating options, resulting in spaces that support lingering and reflection instead of rushing visitors from one masterpiece to the next. It also led to the Chazen launching a new mobile app this fall on the Bloomberg Connects platform. The app will greatly expand access to the Chazen’s collection by offering digital maps and wayfinding, audio artwork descriptions for low-vision visitors, exclusive audio features, and self-guided tours.

In some galleries, visitors may notice bold use of colors, patterns and graphics on the walls and in others, more familiar neutral and white backgrounds. Alcauskas says those choices were largely based on how the particular artworks were intended to be viewed. “Nineteenth century portraits would have been viewed against saturated colors or wallpaper, while the preference for white gallery walls emerged largely in the 20th century as a modernist curatorial convention,” she says.

The vivid, large-scale abstract painting “Pink Flutter” by Sam Gilliam will anchor a gallery space that looks at how artists use color and texture to create feelings of weightlessness and depth. Another gallery will place visitors inside a distinctly Wisconsin story.

Chazen staff make final adjustments to Sylvia Fein’s Mama’s Music Class. One of 20 works by Fein in the collection, this painting serves as a constellation object to Wisconsin Farm Scene in gallery 11.

John Steuart Curry’s Wisconsin Farm Scene was painted in 1941 during his time as artist-in-residence at UW–Madison’s then-College of Agriculture (now College of Agricultural and Life Sciences). It will serve as a lens for exploring the Wisconsin Idea — the belief that university knowledge should improve lives beyond campus. It reflects not only a rural scene, but also the influence of university research on farming practices across the state.

Surrounding works will expand that conversation, connecting art to Wisconsin’s communities, landscapes and values past and present. The gallery reflects a broader goal of the reinstallation: showing visitors that art is not separate from everyday life, but deeply intertwined with it.

That idea resonates especially strongly on a university campus.

Staff install Feather Tree by Truman Lowe in gallery 11.

Because the Chazen sits at the heart of UW–Madison, the reinstallation project drew on expertise from across disciplines, including history, religious studies, material sciences and studio art. Faculty, graduate students, staff and community members all gave input that helped shape the galleries.

These collaborations reflect the Chazen’s role as both a public gathering space and a teaching institution. The museum plans to continue gathering visitor feedback after reopening, allowing the galleries to evolve over time as new research, ideas and acquisitions emerge.

“This whole project was a chance to rethink not just what visitors see, but how they experience a museum overall,” says Exhibition and Collection Project Manager Kate Wanberg. “We want to create spaces that feel welcoming and intuitive while still sparking deeper engagement and curiosity.”

For the broader Madison community, the reopening signals more than the rebirth of a beloved cultural space. It represents a renewed vision for what an art museum can be: a place to contemplate, converse and connect.

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Photo by Peter Kleppin

After four long years, the lattice of scaffolding obscuring the Chazen Museum of Art’s Conrad J. Elvehjem Building has finally come down. A trained eye might notice that the exterior stone cladding looks new, but other than that, it would seem not much has changed. In fact, the opposite is true.

As it turns out, this much-needed exterior construction is only part of an ongoing, large-scale reimagining of the museum’s permanent collection that will shift the way patrons experience the Chazen into the future.

The extensive renovation project in the older of the museum’s two buildings, the Elvehjem, unfolded behind scaffolding, inside the building’s walls and on its roof and skylight systems. It involved thousands of work hours, tons of materials, and highly specialized knowledge and craftsmanship, all resulting in improved energy efficiency and climate control. These improvements make the Elvehjem a more temperate place for the Chazen’s galleries and visitors, as well as the academic faculty, staff, and students who rely on the building.

The nuts and bolts of the construction project may not be flashy, but they’re critical.

“On the outside, the changes are so subtle visitors may not be able to put their finger on precisely what’s been done,” says Chazen Director Amy Gilman. “While the newly reinstalled galleries on the inside will be more noticeably different to visitors, it’s actually both things — exterior and interior — that together will help keep the Chazen’s collection accessible, safe, and enjoyable for many more years to come.”

The four-foot-tall plywood fence surrounding the construction site of the Elvehjem Art Center, splashed with student musings and advertisements for co-ops. (Courtesy of UW Archives)

Building on history

When the Elvehjem was conceived fifty-some years ago, supporters were more focused on the visible parts of the building. Unfortunately, this would lead to some structural challenges in the future.

According to A Century of Capricious Collecting, a monograph on the museum’s history by Professor Emeritus of Art History James Watrous, supporters wanted more than a university building. They wanted a museum worthy of the university’s growing art collection and the generosity of its patrons. Concerned about the building’s aesthetics, they were relieved when the state appointed noted architect Harry Weese of Chicago, who also designed the Elvehjem’s next door neighbor, the Mosse Humanities Building.

At the time, Weese had a thriving firm, having landed numerous large projects including the lauded Washington, D.C., metro system. Five preliminary designs for the Elvehjem were rejected, but Watrous writes that the “ingenious designer … developed a personal interest in the art center. One evening when a small group was assembled at the State Architect’s office, Weese led a brainstorming session from which the sixth and basic design of the Elvehjem evolved.”

The building opened as the Elvehjem Art Center on Sept. 12, 1970. (It became the Elvehjem Museum of Art in 1978, and in 2005, in honor of a lead gift toward expansion into two buildings, was renamed the Chazen Museum of Art.)  The original building’s exterior echoed some of the Brutalist elements of the neighboring Humanities building, but with more refinement. Instead of dominant concrete, it featured a type of dolomitic limestone cladding known as Lannon stone, mined from quarries around the village of Lannon, just west of Milwaukee. The building also had extensive sloped skylights and a copper mansard roof. Inside, two floors of galleries and a mezzanine surrounded a central courtyard clad in porous travertine limestone, and an atrium extending up to the building’s pyramidal skylights.

Addressing hidden areas for improvement

Within its walls, however, the building had minimal insulation, no vapor barrier, and large air gaps between its exterior stone cladding and concrete block inner structure. Given Wisconsin’s extreme summer-to-winter temperature swings, humidity and temperature control were ongoing issues. The skylights and the recessed drain systems on the roof began leaking, creating significant challenges to protecting the art in the galleries.

“It looked like the walls were weeping,” says Lindsay Grinstead, the Chazen’s chief of staff and liaison to the renovation, of the drip marks visible on the gallery walls where the lack of insulation was trapping moisture behind the paint.

Chazen staff had been making a case for renovating the Elvehjem for some time. In March 2022, during inspection of several university building exteriors, engineers found significant issues with the Elvehjem’s stone cladding. Safety officials closed the building’s entrances and put up fences “out of an abundance of caution,” according to a university statement at the time. Access to the building was limited to the third-floor bridge connecting the Elvehjem to the Chazen building until protective scaffolding around the facility was installed.

Construction fencing is erected around the Conrad A. Elvehjem Building exterior at the University of Wisconsin–Madison at dusk on March 14, 2022. Photo by Jeff Miller / UW–Madison

An evolving project

Construction on the renovation project began in 2023. UW–Madison Facilities Planning and Management staff managed the project from the university side, with McGowan Architecture of Madison as the primary architect. And since the Elvehjem is on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Bascom Hill Historic District, a historic preservation architect was also involved, along with consultants in masonry and other specialties.

Building Envelope Professionals Group of Oregon used drone-based, 3D cameras and modeling technology to conduct initial visual assessments of the cladding. Combined with thorough manual inspection and laboratory tests, they graded the condition of each stone and determined it all needed to be replaced. Building Restoration Corporation handled the exterior stone removal and replacement, as well as installation of vapor barriers and insulation.

Grinstead says there were manufacturing delays with stone suppliers, along with quality control and color-matching issues. “They created a sorting system and the architects practically had to hand-select every stone,” she says.

On the roof, workers removed the sloped stone and added vapor barriers and insulation before recovering it with new stone.  They removed and replaced copper gutters, sloped skylights, and flat sections of the roof that were previously covered by copper.

After work was completed on the roof, the Elvehjem began experiencing a new set of water leaks where there hadn’t been any before. Grinstead says the leaks prompted a redesign of the roof’s drain system, additional engineering reviews, and custom fabrication of unique components by local plumbing contractor H.J. Pertzborn.

The final major piece of the puzzle was removing and replacing the building’s leaking pyramidal skylights. The new skylights were designed, fabricated, and installed by Madison’s Lake City Glass in Spring 2026.

Now, with the project largely wrapped up, it’s the less noticeable things that will be bearing fruit for the art collection and visitors for years to come. Visitors may not be able to detect the more consistent temperature and humidity levels in the galleries, but it matters.

“That’s the hard part about it,” Grinstead says. “A lot goes into creating a proper environment for the collection that you can’t see. But for the patrons and the objects on display, that’s often the most important part.”

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MADISON, Wis. — Constellations of artworks across time, media and cultures highlight common connections in a complete reinstallation of the permanent collection at the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW–Madison). Debuting in the fall, the reimagined presentation unfolds across twenty-four gallery spaces, each anchored by a deeply researched focus object that invites close looking and layered interpretation. The reinstallation will also mark the reopening of the Chazen’s Elvehjem building, which has been closed for renovation since 2023.

Planning for the ambitious transformation began several years ago, as curators and subject matter experts undertook a deep exploration of the more than 25,000 artworks in the Chazen’s care. The collection, ranging from studio glass and figurative ceramics to modern Midwest painting and Japanese woodcuts, has been reconsidered through a lens that emphasizes making connections between art and daily life.

“The reinstallation allows us to showcase the strengths of the Chazen Museum of Art collection while offering a more enriching and holistic museum experience for our visitors,” said Amy Gilman, director of the Chazen Museum of Art and senior director for the arts and media at UW–Madison. “With the reinstallation, we hope to give visitors control of the rhythm of their journey and the confidence to choose their own path through the space and discover what resonates most with them.”

The reinstallation is rooted in visitor experience. Museum staff have incorporated research on how audiences engage with art — from how long guests linger to contemplate works to the amount of time spent reading and responding to interpretive text. Carefully considering what makes museums special alongside elements that might intimidate visitors, the Chazen team has worked to create an environment that will speak to a wide range of perspectives.

While the overall aesthetic of the galleries will feel familiar, visitors will notice a subtle but meaningful shift toward more intuitive, engaging encounters with art. Thoughtful design choices such as color palettes, materials, and seating support sustained looking and reflection, encouraging seamless interactions with objects and their accompanying labels. Chazen exhibition staff in collaboration with outside designers have developed gallery environments that complement the artworks while encouraging visitors to move fluidly through the renewed spaces.

“This reinstallation is a chance to rethink how a permanent collection can be experienced,” said Kate Wanberg, exhibition and collection project manager at the Chazen. “By aligning design, interpretation and visitor flow, we’re creating a flexible framework that feels welcoming while allowing individual objects to spark curiosity and engagement.”

The Chazen team took a collaborative approach from the start, leveraging its position as a museum embedded in a leading research university. The institution invited input from UW–Madison faculty, staff, and students across diverse fields—from history and religion to material sciences and studio art—to guide its reinstallation. Focus objects were selected and developed through proposals and conversations involving curators; UW–Madison graduate students, faculty, staff, and instructors; and community members.

With plans to continue gathering feedback through observation and surveys after the reinstallation opens, input from the community continues to be a vital throughline of the project. This flexible approach allows the museum to evolve over time, incorporating new research, perspectives and acquisitions while remaining responsive to its visitors.

“Placing focus objects at the center of each gallery allows us to build meaning outward from individual artworks,” said Katherine Alcauskas, the Chazen’s chief curator who is overseeing the reinstallation. “By stepping away from traditional hierarchies, we can highlight unexpected treasures from our collection and provide fresh entry points for visitors to discover future favorites and engage with original scholarship.”

Sam Gilliam (American, 1933 – 2022), Pink Flutter, 1969, acrylic on canvas, 107 x 86 x 2 1/4 in., gift of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Gross, 1982.43

Among the featured works is Sam Gilliam’s Pink Flutter, (1969), a focus object slated for Gallery 17. A vibrant cascade of color and texture, the painting was created by folding and crumpling a still-wet canvas and leaving it overnight, allowing chance to interact with the artist’s guiding vision in determining its final composition. When unfolded, it reveals a mirrored pattern reminiscent of a Rorschach inkblot test. Mounted on a beveled stretcher that gives it sculptural presence, Pink Flutter challenges the boundaries of traditional painting. Created the same year as the first moon landing, the work evokes a sense of weightlessness, catapulting viewers from the familiar into a world of the artist’s creation.

John Steuart Curry (American, 1897–1946), Wisconsin Farm Scene, 1941, oil on canvas, 88 7/8 x 97 in., gift of First National Bank and First Wisconsin Corporation, 1985.319

In Gallery 11, John Steuart Curry’s Wisconsin Farm Scene (1941) serves as a focal point for exploring the Wisconsin Idea, a guiding principle of UW–Madison since the early twentieth century that insists that education should influence people’s lives beyond the boundaries of the classroom. Curry’s idealized landscape reflects both the harmony between nature and the state’s rural residents as well as the influence of scientific research on local agriculture, with careful depictions of pastures and fields shaped by advances in crop rotation and soil management. Created during his tenure as artist-in-residence at the university’s School of Agriculture, the painting embodies the mutually beneficial relationship between the arts, education and rural communities. Additional works in the gallery reflect the people, landscapes, cities and farms as well as the interests and values of past and present Wisconsinites.

A very different perspective on art and daily life emerges in Gallery 2 with the York Minster Jug, a nineteeth-century factory-made ceramic vessel that unites modern industry with a nostalgia for Britain’s medieval Christian past. Its sculptural surface features pointed arches, slender columns and religious imagery, reflecting a time period when mass-produced objects carried both aesthetic and cultural meaning. Newly accessible to a growing middle class, such commodities helped shape public taste while anxieties over rapid modernization fueled a romanticization of Gothic art and architecture.

The object-centered approach builds on earlier initiatives such as re:mancipation, a multi-year project that reframed a single artwork from the Chazen’s collection as a catalyst to prompt dialogue and navigate complex issues.

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Isthmus Picks Infrastructure Bodies/Injury Systems by Anne Stoner 4-20-2026

The New York Times museum special section 4-19-2026

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Newcity 3-25-2026, Chazen Museum Presents Anne E. Stoner’s “Infrastructure Bodies/Injury Systems”

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Chazen Museum of Art curator Erica DiBenedetto, Ph.D.
Photo by Marcin J. Muchalski, Diamond Shot Studio

MADISON, Wis. — The Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW–Madison) has named Erica DiBenedetto, Ph.D., as its new curator. DiBenedetto will advance the Museum’s commitment to scholarship and global representation by stewarding approximately 10,000 objects in the Chazen’s collection of paintings, sculpture, glass, ceramics and multi-media works. She will also guide student research and hire and mentor undergraduate and graduate students at UW–Madison. Her appointment begins April 6.

“As the Chazen Museum of Art embarks on a transformative reinstallation of the permanent collection, Erica DiBenedetto’s oversight of the Chazen’s non-works on paper holdings will play a pivotal role in shaping a museum experience that is accessible, engaging and resonates with a global audience. Her expertise will advance new scholarship and illuminate fresh perspectives within the Chazen’s collection,” said Amy Gilman, director of the Chazen Museum of Art and senior director for the arts and media at UW–Madison.

DiBenedetto joins the Chazen Museum of Art from The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, where she served as a curatorial assistant and curatorial associate in the department of painting and sculpture. Her most recent work involved traveling to Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe to interview artists and access art collections and archives.  DiBenedetto says that experience sparked her interest in the Chazen’s Contemporary African Art Initiative, a five-year project that established a collection of over 45 works by 24 artists across 12 countries, including Senegal, Tunisia and Ethiopia. Supported largely by the Straus Family Foundation, the acquisitions build upon the Museum’s initial contemporary African holdings from the late 1990s.

“The Chazen Museum of Art’s commitment to contemporary African art initially drew me to this role. I quickly became enamored with how the Chazen inspires experimentation on campus and beyond. What excites me most about being part of a research university is the opportunity to collaborate with students and faculty across disciplines, helping the Museum be both a resource for the academic community as well as a site of learning and discovery for the community at large,” said DiBenedetto.

DiBenedetto looks forward to the upcoming reinstallation of the Chazen’s permanent collection to develop exhibitions and programs that prioritize close looking and spark curiosity about the wide range of artworks on view. Her aim is to continue to advance the Chazen’s goal to be a place that encourages reflection and inquiry while presenting new threads that connect artists and works across time and geographies.

“Art is full of ideas. It helps us think about the world in which we live and invites us to consider every detail — from the most mundane to the highly philosophical. The power of art lies in its ability to prompt conversation, and museums provide critical spaces for thinking and looking. I look forward to pairing my expertise with the Chazen’s efforts to foster an environment where visitors feel comfortable being curious,” said DiBenedetto.

At MoMA, DiBenedetto also assisted with an exhibition of hundreds of drawings by Ivorian artist Frédéric Bruly Bouabré and an exhibition of 19th-century objects related to Isaac Julien’s “Lessons of the Hour.” She is also a recognized expert on the artist Sol LeWitt, on whom she wrote her dissertation. In 2018, she was appointed as an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation museum research consortium fellow at MoMA. She was also a guest curator at Menil Drawing Institute in Houston; an intern at Princeton University Art Museum; a co-curator and director’s intern at Williams College Museum of Art in Massachusetts; and a departmental assistant at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. She also held instructional roles at Princeton University and Williams College.

“As a curator and scholar, Erica DiBenedetto bridges rigorous academic research with public-facing exhibition making. With teaching experience at Princeton University and at Williams College, she is exceptionally well positioned to collaborate with students and faculty and to bring new research directly into the Chazen’s galleries,” said Katherine Alcauskas, chief curator at the Chazen Museum of Art.

DiBenedetto holds doctoral and master’s degrees in art and archaeology from Princeton University, a master’s degree in the history of art from Williams College and a Bachelor of Humanities and Arts with a focus on aesthetics, culture and social process from Carnegie Mellon University. Her writing has been featured in numerous exhibition catalogs, essays and arts publications.

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John Szarkowski, University of Wisconsin class of 1947; image: 1986; University of Wisconsin—Madison archives collections.

December 18, 2025 – The Chazen Museum of Art is delighted to announce a generous gift of twenty-eight photographs by celebrated photographer Irving Penn (1917–2009) from The Irving Penn Foundation in honor of John Szarkowski (1925–2007), a UW–Madison alumnus and former photography curator at the Museum of Modern Art.

The group of photographic prints curated by Van Vleck Curator of Works on Paper James R. Wehn, PhD, in collaboration with the foundation, represents a major addition to the Chazen’s collection, where it will augment existing holdings of photographs across multiple genres from the late 1930s to the turn of the twentieth century. The gift surveys Penn’s practice, from his earliest photographs to projects undertaken for Vogue magazine and his independent studio work.

“The Chazen is thrilled to receive this generous gift of photographs from The Irving Penn Foundation,” said Amy Gilman, Senior Director for the Arts and Media, Director of the Chazen Museum of Art. “It is precisely these types of deeply meaningful gifts which have transformed the museum’s collection time and time again, and we are honored to continue John Szarkowski’s legacy of sharing the brilliance of Irving Penn’s work. “

Szarkowski graduated from the UW in 1947 with a B.A. in art history. As Director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, 1962–1991, he played an influential role in establishing Penn as a fine art photographer, most notably in a major retrospective exhibition at MoMA in 1984.

“John Szarkowski looms large in the past century’s pantheon of photography figures, and today—on what would have been the esteemed curator’s 100th birthday—the foundation is pleased to announce this donation of Irving Penn works to the Chazen,” said Tom Penn, Executive Director of the foundation and the artist’s son. “Considering Szarkowski’s lifelong vocation as an educator and his ties to Wisconsin, we feel strongly that placing this group of my father’s photographs in the didactic collection of a teaching museum is an especially fitting way to commemorate the occasion. We’re delighted to partner with the Chazen in honoring Szarkowski, a pivotal champion of Penn’s artistic legacy.”

“These photographs will offer visitors and students insights into Penn’s career and artistic practice,” said Wehn. “Because many of these photographs relate to Penn’s commercial work for Vogue, they reflect aspects of twentieth-century American popular history and related visual culture. They also show Penn’s deep interest in mastering darkroom techniques that produced stunningly beautiful results.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in Plainfield, NJ, Irving Penn attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts (later University of the Arts), where he studied advertising design. In 1938, he purchased his first camera with earnings from drawings published in Harper’s Bazaar. After working in various art director jobs, Penn traveled in the American south and in Mexico, taking photographs while briefly aspiring to become a painter. In 1943, he took a position at Vogue magazine, where he worked as a photographer for seven decades. Throughout his career, Penn consistently redefined the photographic medium, blending artistic vision with technical mastery in fashion, portraiture, travel, and still life. Keenly interested in printing photographs, Penn experimented with methods that produced certain aesthetic effects or offered greater control over tonal variations, ultimately developing complex techniques for printing with palladium and platinum metals. He applied these innovations in bodies of work that leveraged his editorial and advertising skills while also advancing photography as a fine art.

ABOUT THE IRVING PENN FOUNDATION

The Irving Penn Foundation was established to promote knowledge and understanding of the artistic legacy of Irving Penn, including the diversity of techniques, mediums, and subject matter the artist explored.

In furtherance of this mission, the foundation’s objectives include preserving in excellent condition those works by Penn that are owned by the foundation; placing representative selections of Penn’s work in the permanent collections of major institutions around the world; serving as a resource for reliable and comprehensive information about the artist’s life and work; fostering high standards of quality in those publications that are authorized to reproduce the artist’s work; and encouraging individuals and institutions whose artistic and scholarly endeavors uphold Penn’s values and advance the mission of the foundation.

A SELECTION OF IMAGES GIVEN TO THE CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART

All by Irving Penn, all a gift of The Irving Penn Foundation in celebration of the centennial of UW–Madison alumnus John Szarkowski.

Issey Miyake Lacquer Pleats (“Egyptian”), New York, 1990 | Platinum-palladium print © The Irving Penn Foundation

Carson McCullers, New York, 1950 | Gelatin silver print © Condé Nast

Girl in Bed (Jean Patchett), New York, 1949 | Gelatin silver print © The Irving Penn Foundation

Cigarette No. 86, New York, 1972 | Platinum-palladium print © The Irving Penn Foundation

Optician’s Shop Window (C), New York, circa 1939 | Gelatin silver print © Condé Nast

George Grosz (1 of 3), New York, 1948 | Gelatin silver print © The Irving Penn Foundation

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