Sheldon Museum of Art - Lincoln, Nebraska - Art Museum

Sheldon Museum of Art is located on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus at the corner of 12th and R streets in Lincoln, Nebraska. Admission to the museum is free and is open to the public from 10am to 8pm on Tuesdays, 10am to 5pm Wednesday to Saturday and 12pm to 5pm on Sundays, remaining closed on Mondays, Easter, Memorial and Independence Days and Thanksgiving. Two weeks notice needs to be provided to arrange a tour of the museum, which will last approximately one hour and is also free.

The museum is a memorial to Mary Frances Sheldon, who bequeathed her estate to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for the explicit purpose of constructing an art museum on campus. Adams Bromley Sheldon increased his sister's gift with 40 percent of his own estate and work on the Sheldon Museum of Art was eventually started in 1961. New York architect Philip Johnson was the architect, as the original bequest insisted one of international repute should be used and two years later the museum opened.

Now the museum houses both the Sheldon Art Association collection founded in 1888, and the University of Nebraska collection, initiated in 1929. Sculpture features with more than 30 works exhibited throughout the year in the Sculpture Garden. Here visitors will see works by Gaston Lachaise, Jacques Lipchitz, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, David Smith, William Tucker, Bryan Hunt, Mark di Suvero, Michael Heizer and Richard Serra.

One of the most important collections of American art in the United States including a permanent collection of more than 12,000 works of art in all media by artists such as Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Mary Cassatt and Georgia O'Keeffe can be found here. The collections cover a range of American art from 19th-century landscape and still life, American impressionism, early modernism, geometric abstraction, abstract expressionism, pop, minimalism and contemporary art.

The Sculpture Garden on the south side of the museum can be used for special events as well as indoor areas of the museum, where gatherings such as receptions, dinners, lectures, concerts, meetings and conferences can be held. The Great Hall at the center of the building can accommodate stand up receptions for up to 200 guests or sit down dinners for 120 people. The Ethel S. Abbott Auditorium seats up to 294 people and is a good place for concerts or lectures as there is audio/visual equipment available as well as a concert grand piano, whilst the Olga Nielson Sheldon Room can be used for smaller meetings for up to 30 people.

Visitors can purchase souvenirs from the museum store, which opens from 12 noon to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday and from 1pm to 4pm on Sundays. This can be found by walking through the east entrance of the museum and turning right through the gallery doors. Items such as books, jewelry, stationery, home decor items, learning materials relating to the Sheldon collection and handcrafted products can be bought at the store.