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Sustain the Smart Today

Annual Fund

Gifts to the Smart’s Annual Fund are unrestricted, fully tax-deductible gifts that support critical operating expenses. In other words, gifts to the Smart’s Annual fund sustain our ability to offer exhibitions, student engagement, free community programming, and more.
Donate to the Annual Fund

WHAT YOUR SUPPORT SUSTAINS

EXHIBITIONS

Our exhibition program typically include four exhibitions per year that draw on the collection, commissions from contemporary artists, and objects on loan from institutional partners and private collectors to reevaluate canonical histories and curatorial strategies. 

As an academic museum at the University of Chicago, the Smart values rigorous scholarship that challenges traditional academic boundaries and exemplifies this in its deeply researched exhibitions which are conceived in partnership with classes in various disciplines, as well as through its publication program and academic teaching outreach. 

Opening reception, Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2026. Smart Museum of Art, the University of Chicago. Photo by Jason Smith.

Curricular engagement is a central part of the Smart Museum’s work and, with the help of the Feitler Center for Academic Inquiry, the Museum’s collections, exhibitions, and broader resources are integrated into teaching, learning, and research at the University of Chicago.

Through the Feitler Center, the Museum supports hundreds of University class visits each year, incorporating impactful engagements with art into the University’s curriculum and transforming the Museum into a classroom. 

Patrick Morrissey of the University of Chicago’s English Department teaches the “Poetry and the Human” class at the Smart Museum of Art, 2024. Photo by Jason Smith.

Art to Live With is an art loan program that offers UChicago students living in residence halls the unique opportunity to borrow original works of art to display in their dorm rooms.

Originating in 1958, the program provides over 130 students each year with annual loans of artwork and is often called one of the most important experiences for UChicago students. 

Students receiving an art loan for Art to Live With 2025. Photo by Jason Smith.
The Smart is the only fine art museum on the South Side of Chicago and is part of a vibrant cultural ecosystem at the University and in Chicago. According to a recent survey conducted by the University’s Office of Civic Engagement, South Side community members cited the Smart among the top three most recognizable institutions at the University of Chicago. Part of this recognition comes from the Museum’s nearly fifty-year history of being free and welcoming to all, as well as its ambitious public programs and extensive history of K–12 engagement.
Public program, "Nicole Stott with Joseph & Sarah Belknap on the Cosmos," 2026.

Public art at UChicago makes the campus a unique destination, even in a city long renowned for its collections.

With unexpected and arresting sculptures tucked around corners and in buildings, public art creates countless moments for spontaneous community building and conversation. It extends the intellectual life of our university beyond classrooms, libraries, and labs, and into the everyday spaces that shape our experiences. 

Ruth Duckworth, Earth, Water, Sky, 1967–68, ceramic mural. Commissioned in the name of the University of Chicago by Julian Goldsmith, Chairman of the Geophysical Sciences Department; Presented to the University in honor of Jane H. Sherr by the Leonard J. Horwich Family. Photo by Michael Tropea.
Make a Gift Today

You may also donate by calling 773.702.2368.

If you wish to mail a check, please send it to the following address, made payable to the Smart Museum of Art:

Smart Museum of Art 
The University of Chicago
Attn: Development Department
5550 S. Greenwood Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637

Questions? Email [email protected] or call 773-702-2368.