In keeping with its long-established leadership role in arts education, with four top-ranking professional schools of the arts (in music, drama, architecture and art), Yale has embarked on an ambitious program to expand and enhance the University's arts facilities.
The re-opening this month of the extensively renovated Yale University Art Gallery's Louis Kahn building, designed by the renowned architect while he was a visiting critic at the School of Architecture and opened in 1953, marks the latest milestone in this wide-reaching and ongoing endeavor.
This renaissance of the arts at Yale has already seen the construction of the new Gilmore Music Library, the renovation of Sprague Hall and Leigh Hall at the Yale School of Music, and the conversion of an abandoned facility on Chapel Street into Green Hall, the new home of the Yale School of Art.
Ground has been broken and construction begun on a new arts complex directly across the street from the Yale Art Gallery. Designed by renowned architect Charles Gwathmey, the complex includes a new building to house the Department of the History of Art and a new Arts Library. These will be connected to Paul Rudolph's landmark "A&A" Building, home of the Yale School of Architecture, which is itself undergoing an extensive restoration.
Even more improvements are planned in the future. These include:
* The renovation of Hendrie Hall, which houses practice and rehearsal facilities for undergraduate and graduate students in music, and Stoeckel Hall, home of the Department of Music.
* Construction of new buildings for the Yale School of Art's sculpture program, the Yale School of Drama and the Yale Repertory Theatre.
* The relocation and expansion of the Digital Media Center for the Arts, which serves all the art schools and the programs in film and theater studies.
Enhancements will continue to the Yale University Art Gallery even after the Kahn building reopens, as the University expands the facility across the High Street bridge into Street Hall.
This expansion of Yale's arts facilities will strengthen its ability to nurture creativity and encourage a cross-pollination of ideas among young artists; to present a rich variety of cultural offerings featuring talented performers both from the campus and around the world (many open to the public free of charge); and to promote scholarship in the arts by making its vast collections available to researchers worldwide.
To complete this ambitious building program, the University is seeking $500 million through the recently launched "Yale Tomorrow" capital campaign. It also hopes to raise $100 million in endowed scholarship funds to support talented students in the arts.
"Yale's unique strength in the arts is well known around the globe. No other private university has a full suite of professional schools in art, architecture, music and drama of comparable distinction," said President Richard C. Levin, in announcing the "Yale Tomorrow" campaign.
"From Maya Lin to Chuck Close, from Norman Foster to Willie Ruff, from Meryl Streep to David Henry Hwang, Yale's contribution to the arts is unsurpassed," Levin noted. "And in the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art, we hold art collections of extraordinary quality and breadth."
He added: "It is a source of great pride that Yale has the capacity to contribute to the quality of life and creativity of our nation by making such a monumental investment in the arts."
These pages offer a brief look at the richness of Yale's arts collections and at the Yale schools where faculty in the arts -- accomplished practitioners themselves -- have helped shape the painters, sculptors, musicians, actors, playwrights, architects and designers who have made far-reaching contributions to the cultural landscape.
As part of a transformation and expansion of Yale's arts area, construction has begun on a complex that will include a new building to house the Department of the History of Art and a new Arts Library. Renovations are also underway at the Paul Rudolph-designed building that is home to the Yale School of Architecture. Future plans call for the construction of new buildings for the School of Drama and its affiliated Yale Repertory Theatre, as well as a new facility for sculpture students at the Yale School of Art. (Click map for larger view).
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Yale Collection of Musical Instruments
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