FINAL Hood Museum Facade April 2019 Photo by Alison Palizzolo 300ppi

The Hood Museum of Art is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

owned and operated by

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

Hanover, New Hampshire Hanover is a New England town, town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university ...

. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth was in 1772, making the collection among the oldest and largest, at about 65,000 objects, of any college or university museum in the United States. The Hood Museum of Art officially opened in the fall of 1985. The original building was designed by

Charles Willard Moore Charles Willard Moore (October 31, 1925 – December 16, 1993) was an American architect, educator, writer, Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and winner of the AIA Gold Medal in 1991. He is often labeled as the father of postm ...

and Chad Floyd. In March 2016, the museum closed for a major expansion and renovation designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. The museum reopened to the public on January 26, 2019, with more gallery and office spaces as well as a welcoming new atrium. It also added the Bernstein Center for Object Study, which houses three smart object-study rooms, an object-staging room, and curatorial and security offices, all accessible to Dartmouth faculty and students via an entrance set parallel to the doors to the galleries themselves. As a teaching museum, the Hood Museum of Art's mission is to "enable and cultivate transformative encounters with works of artistic and cultural significance to advance critical thinking and enrich people's lives." It offers support to the Dartmouth curriculum across many disciplines and majors while encouraging co-curricular engagement through workshops such as Museum Collecting 101 and the undergraduate-driven Museum Club. The museum is free and open to all. The Hood Museum's collection is drawn from a wide range of cultures and historical periods. The 65,000 objects in the museum's care represent the diverse artistic traditions of six continents, including, broadly, Native American, European and American, Asian, Indigenous Australian, African, and Melanesian art. The museum hosts both collection-driven and loan-based traveling exhibitions. Among the museum's most important holdings are six

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

n stone reliefs from the palace of

Ashurnasirpal II Ashur-nasir-pal II (transliteration: ''Aššur-nāṣir-apli'', meaning " Ashur is guardian of the heir") was the third king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 883 to 859 BC. Ashurnasirpal II succeeded his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II. His son and s ...

(about 900 BCE), the complete archive of photojournalist

James Nachtwey James Nachtwey (born March 14, 1948) is an American photojournalist and war photographer. He has been awarded the Overseas Press Club's Robert Capa Gold Medal five times and two World Press Photo awards. In 2003, Nachtwey was injured in a gren ...

, and the fresco by

José Clemente Orozco José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter, who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siquei ...

titled ''

The Epic of American Civilization ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' (1932–34), which was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 2013, located nearby in Dartmouth's Baker-Berry Library.

References

External links

Official website
Dartmouth College facilities Experimental film festivals University museums in New Hampshire Art museums and galleries in New Hampshire Museums of the ancient Near East in the United States Museums in Grafton County, New Hampshire Hanover, New Hampshire Postmodern architecture in the United States Art museums and galleries established in 1985 1985 establishments in New Hampshire African art museums in the United States {{NewHampshire-museum-stub