The David Owsley Museum of Art, owns more than 11,000 works of art and occupies the entire second floor of the Fine Arts Building at Ball State University. The David Owsley Museum is one of the few museums in the state of Indiana that is still considered part of the university.

By Darla McCammon
and Darlene Romano
Guest Columnists

There is a great art museum in Muncie, the David Owsley Museum of Art, that owns more than 11,000 works of art and occupies the entire second floor of the Fine Arts Building at Ball State University. The David Owsley Museum is one of the few museums in the state of Indiana that is still considered part of the university. Most museums start out as part of a university but then at some point become independent of the university.

The origin of the museum dates back to 1892 when the Museum Art Students League was formed and began collecting artworks through donations. In 1918, the collection moved to the newly formed Indiana State Normal School, Eastern Division which later became Ball State Teachers College and then Ball State University in honor of the Ball brothers who provided the initial land for the museum.

In 1935 the Fine Arts Building was constructed and remains the home of the collection. In 2002 and 2013 the museum was expanded to house the growing collection. The museum was renamed the David Owsley Museum of Art in 2011, in honor of his generous gifts.

The museum houses more than 11,000 works of art from all continents representing 5,000 years of civilization. The website for the museum, bsu.edu/web/museumofart/collection, offers an online database with more than 2,000 works including ancient, African, Asian, oceanic, American, European, and modern and contemporary. The museum is constantly adding more artworks to the database that is used as an educational resource for teachers, students and the general public.

There is currently a special exhibition being offered at the museum. The exhibition, titled “A Wild Story: The David and Sarajoni Johnson Print Collection”. runs through May 21. The museum is open to the public with visiting hours of 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1:30-4:30 p.m. Saturday. There is no admission fee to visit the museum. For more information contact 765-285-5242.

Events

Lakeland Art Center & Gallery: The gallery reopened March 1 with exhibiting artists Samara Dulik and Kim Marcadis. Dulik has created her own brand of painting that highlights color through the introduction of graffitism, using acrylics, spray paints, inks, Posca pens and at times, finger painting. Marcadis creates functional pottery with lots of color and texture using many different processes, techniques and materials. The interesting and beautiful work of both artists will be on display through March 26 at the gallery located at 302 E. Winona Avenue in Warsaw. The gallery hours are 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. For more information call (574) 267-5568 or (574) 457-6085 or email [email protected].

Warsaw City Hall Art Gallery: Local artist Deana Harvey will be displaying her artwork through the end of March, 2023. If you have already been to her exhibit, make sure to stop by again as she has switched out her artwork to provide a fresh showing. To exhibit at Warsaw City Hall Art Gallery, contact Darla McCammon, Curator, at (574) 527-4044 (leave a message) or email to [email protected].

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