Arts & Humanities

Connecting our strengths in humanistic and artistic exploration

We believe the humanistic disciplines that help us understand our world—history, philosophy, language, communication and culture, political theory, religion—are enhanced by deep exploration into how we express ourselves through the arts. As the state’s leader in humanities and arts education, we continually look for new ways to connect our creative research and scholarship with the study of the human experience.

the audience listens to a speaker at the IU Cinema — The IU Cinema

Where arts venues are places of study

We’re fortunate to have some of the world’s finest arts venues and museums, which are not only places for exceptional performances and exhibits—they’re hubs for academic study. At the IU Cinema, students, faculty, and visiting filmmakers and actors participate in symposia, film series, and events that cover topics like African diaspora, femininity and feminism, and the Great War. The cinema doubles as a research facility, allowing scholars to revisit cinematic texts archived within IU’s vast collections.

A commitment to arts and humanities

The Arts and Humanities Council is dedicated to creating rich arts and humanities experiences for all members of the IU community. As part of its mission, the council has created a comprehensive events calendar to spotlight the amazing activities taking place on and around the IU Bloomington campus.

Follow filmmaker Penelope Spheeris as she visits the IU Cinema.

Providing free access to the community

All our arts venues are open to the public and many of them are free—providing access to transformative learning experiences for students, faculty, visitors, and our community.

Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art: Designed by renowned architect I. M. Pei, the museum holds an internationally acclaimed collection of 45,000+ objects—including paintings by Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet—which serve to advance art research and education for IU and to engage many community audiences, from pre-K to seniors.
Grunwald Gallery of Art: Undergraduate, M.F.A. student, and faculty exhibitions—as well as juried exhibits from artists around the world—cover a range of interdisciplinary subjects and themes.
IU Jacobs School of Music: The world-renowned school presents hundreds of free recitals from students and faculty annually in its performance halls, as well as regular free IU orchestral performances at the Musical Arts Center (MAC).
Lilly Library: Rare original works like Shakespeare’s first folio are among the hundreds of thousands of manuscripts, films, sheet music, and pieces of art that are available for scholars and admirers of all kinds.
Mathers Museum of World Cultures: Art and objects from African, Asian, Latin American, and Native American cultures include 2,000 ethnomusicology items from every continent.

Eskenazi Museum of Art: Be Amazed

Preserving IU’s recordings

As video and audio technologies evolve, older formats such as VHS tapes or audio cassettes often lie gathering dust in boxes or in dark attic corners. But where a family might have a handful of home movies, Indiana University has more than 635,000 audio, video, and film recordings.

Through the IU Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative (MDPI), IU aims to preserve this extensive collection of rare and often irreplaceable recordings. The most critical components of the collection are slated for digitization and will be made available by IU’s bicentennial in 2020.

Learn about MDPI

Thematic, multidisciplinary learning

IU’s museums and repositories house everything from the paintings of Paul Gauguin (on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.) to artifacts from the Angel Mounds site to an original copy of the Declaration of Independence. A truly interdisciplinary exhibit in fall 2015 brought to the Grunwald Gallery of Art some of the most unusual items in IU’s collections.

The Wunderkammer: Curiosities in the IU collections

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Discover the arts and humanities at IU Bloomington Find attractions and things to do

Arts & Humanities

Connecting our strengths in humanistic and artistic exploration

Where arts venues are places of study

A commitment to arts and humanities

Providing free access to the community

Preserving IU’s recordings

Thematic, multidisciplinary learning

Learn more about the arts and humanities

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