About the LSU Museum of Art

The LSU Museum of Art seeks to enrich and inspire through collections, exhibitions, conservation, and education, serving as a cultural and intellectual resource for the University, Baton Rouge, and beyond.

Founded in 1959, the museum opened its doors to the public in 1962 as a small period room museum in the Memorial Tower. In 2005, it moved to the Shaw Center for the Arts, where it has more than 13,000 square feet of immense exhibition space. As the only dedicated art museum in the city of Baton Rouge, the LSU Museum of Art serves more than 20,000 adults and children who visit the museum’s galleries annually.

The museum presents world-class touring exhibitions of regional, American, and European painting, sculpture, decorative arts, works on paper, and photography. The permanent collection consists of more than 6,500 objects, ranging from a world-class collection of Chinese jade to one of the most comprehensive public collections of Louisiana art. In March 2016, the museum unveiled a complete reinstallation of this collection focused on the art and culture of Louisiana, filling over 10,000 square feet of gallery space with art installations that examine Louisiana’s complex regional history. 

The LSU Museum of Art serves as a vital cultural and educational resource for the greater Baton Rouge community. As part of its mission, the museum supports ambitious art outreach initiatives ranging from collaborative projects with local artists and LSU faculty and students to thriving primary and secondary school art programs. Through its exhibitions and programming, the museum aims to showcase and support the work of local Louisiana artists as well as present projects of great regional and national importance that place the art and artists of Louisiana in dialogue with the wider world. The museum’s education and outreach programs strive to reach broad segments of the local population as well as target underserved neighborhoods. The education department’s philosophy holds that the heart of the museum experience is object-based learning. It believes that personal interaction with original works of art provide meaningful links to the past and powerful points of contact with contemporary cultural concerns.