Art Museum named ‘must see'

Hidden among a foray of limestone buildings and passed every day by IU students, a gem lies in the midst of campus, lit up every night with dancing colors.

“I visited the IU Art Museum last fall around this time,” author and journalist Susan Jaques said. “I was blown away.”

Jaques recently completed her book “A Love for the Beautiful: Discovering America’s Hidden Art Museums,” which is to be published in October or November.

In the book, Jaques features 50 art museums, one of which is the IU Art Museum.

Specializing in art and travel, Jaques has written for numerous magazines, newspapers and websites, such as the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor and the Toronto Globe and Mail.

Traveling from Italy and the Scrovegni Chapel to Holland and Rembrandt’s 400th birthday, Jaques’ interest in seeking “remarkable, hidden museums” was piqued.

“I really felt a strong attraction to museums that were lesser known,” Jaques said. “I was visiting Florida several years ago, and I visited the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. Back then it was small, nondescript and in a former boat warehouse, but they had the most valuable collections, and the artwork was amazing.”

Jaques said after her visit to the Dali Museum she started to wonder if there were other such museums that passed below the radar. She had never heard of the IU Art Museum until she began asking curators where she could find a great collection of African art.

They all said IU.

“The IU Art Museum was at the top of everyone’s list for having one of the best African art collections in the country,” Jaques said. “I traveled from my home in Los Angeles all the way to this little town in the Midwest and was amazed after Diane Pelrine gave me a tour.”

Diane Pelrine, curatorial services curator of African, Oceanic and Pre-Colombian Art at the museum, said she was happy Jaques appreciated the collections.

“I was pleased that Susan recognized that we have one of the finest collections in those three world areas in the U.S.,” Pelrine said. “It’s really remarkable for a museum of our size to have collections like this.”

Jaques discovered the museum itself was designed by I.M. Pei, which she learned when she started researching the museum.

“I was familiar with his early museum at Cornell in New York,” Jaques said. “I had not heard of his work in Bloomington. That was really impressive.”

Jaques said she found the gallery setup fascinating, as well.

“It was an eye-opening experience to see the artwork presented so beautifully,” Jaques said. “The museum really displays the objects so that visitors can appreciate them for their aesthetic value, not just their anthropological value.”

Though Jaques discusses the African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian art in her book, she devotes most of her lines to African art. Jaques said each museum she discusses is different and has different strengths in certain areas of art.

“Our strength is the African area,” Pelrine said. “It goes with the strength IU has had in the African studies department since the 1960s.”

Featuring museums from across the country, 14 of the 50 museums Jaques discovered were at colleges and universities.
 
“We don’t always know what we have,” Jaques said. “You’re busy when you’re a student. The University art museum isn’t something necessarily appreciated. For people who are really interested, the IU Art Museum is a must-see on a museum tour. It’s pretty wonderful to have that at a university.”