Yale University Art Gallery

COURTESY YUAG Art Gallery Guide Mary Hong, MC '00, presents Van Gogh's 'Night Cafe' to a student audience.

I confess that my first-ever visit to the Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) occurred at the end of sophomore year. I con-fess that I thought it would be a dingy build-ing with a few works of art donated by alums. I confess that I was wrong.

The collection of the oldest college art museum in the Western hemisphere is astounding. During my visit, I worked my way down from the Renaissance and Baroque Madonnas on the third floor to the ancient art on the ground floor, in the company of a family friend and alum who continues to be a loyal Gallery member. She told stories of the Gallery's history as we viewed the works of such artists as Seurat and Dalì--including the tale of John Trumbull, whose donation of over 100 history paintings and portraits established the Gallery, and of Benjamin Silliman, Class of 1796, the Gallery's first curator.

The YUAG also includes outstanding collections on American colonial furniture, Near and Far Eastern textiles and ceramics, and Greek and Etruscan vases. Great artists such as Van Gogh and Homer are on permanent display, while special exhibitions this past year included The Pleasures of Paris: Toulouse-Lautrec and his Contemporaries and James Latimer Allen: Portraiture and the Harlem Renaissance. Most collections come from bequests and gifts of alumni, and purchases are often made with alumni money. The works currently displayed represent only a small portion of the YUAG's holdings; University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, and Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, get their pick of works not on display to hang in their houses.

To make more Yalies aware of these offerings, the YUAG has set up a system of student guides who are trained to give tours geared toward an audience of their peers. Currently, Gallery Guides give tours to undergraduates in residential college groups.

The YUAG provides the perfect ambiance for students to entertain parents for a day or spend a rainy Friday afternoon strolling the floors. Just don't wait two years to take advantage of it.

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