Smart Museum of Art
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| Former name | Smart Gallery |
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| Established | 1974 |
| Location | 5550 S Greenwood Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637 United States |
| Type | Art museum |
| Accreditation | American Alliance of Museums |
| Collection size | 15,000 |
| Director | Vacant |
| Architect | Edward Larrabee Barnes |
| Owner | The University of Chicago |
| Website | smartmuseum.uchicago.edu |
The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art is an art museum located on the campus of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The permanent collection has over 15,000 objects. Admission is free.
The Smart Museum and the adjacent Cochrane-Woods Art Center were designed by the architect Edward Larrabee Barnes.
The University of Chicago began seriously planning to build an art museum and establish a permanent art collection in the 1960s (the Renaissance Society was founded in 1915, but does not collect art).
The founding gift came from the Smart Family Foundation in 1967 and construction began in 1971. The museum was named after David A. Smart (1892–1952) and his brother Alfred Smart (1895–1951), the Chicago-based publishers of Esquire, Coronet, and, with Teriade, Verve, as well as the founders of Coronet Films. David Smart was an art collector and owned paintings by Picasso, Renoir, and Chagall. However, the founding gift was of Esquire stock and did not include any works from his personal collection. Instead, the collection was initially assembled from a variety of sources, including works of art in various university departments and gifts from foundations and individual donors.
The Smart's founding director was the art historian and professor Edward A. Maser and the museum was originally associated with the university's department of art history. In 1983, the museum became a separate unit of the university devoted to serving the entire community, including educational outreach activities in local public schools. In its early years it was known as the Smart Gallery but was renamed the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art in 1990 to reflect the expanded mission.
There are over 15,000 objects in the Smart Museum's collection. A selection is displayed in four permanent collection galleries dedicated to modern art, Asian art, European art, and contemporary art. These galleries are rehung annually. The collection is also often used in special exhibitions and for courses taught at the University of Chicago.
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