The DePaul Art Museum. Photo courtesy by DPAM.

By GINNY VAN ALYEA

The President of DePaul University, Robert Manuel, announced today that the school's DePaul Art Museum (DPAM) will close its doors at the end of June.

The museum opened in 2011 and has hosted dozens of free, important exhibitions, featuring work by artists such as Tony Fitzpatrick, Barbara Rossi, Ellen Lanyon, Dawoud Bey, Firelei Báez, and recently Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle. DPAM has also led a multi-year Latinx Initiative that formalized the museum’s efforts toward fostering Latinx representation and participation in museum exhibitions, collections, and public programs. Under the initiative, the museum sought to expand its holdings of work by Latinx artists, building on work represented in the collection by artists such as Candida Alvarez, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Martín Chambi, Ester Hernandez, Harold Mendez, Graciela Iturbide, Angel Otero, Diego Rivera, and Edra Soto and acquiring pieces by Chicago-based artists like Maria Gaspar and Yvette Mayorga, among others.

The final exhibition at DPAM will open on March 5, featuring the work of painters Alice Tippit and Barbara Nessim.

The university announcement stated, “As part of our responsibility to ensure long-term financial sustainability for our university, we are continuing to engage in ongoing budget planning discussions." As part of that review, DePaul stated, the University ultimately made what they acknowledged was a difficult decision to stop operations at DPAM at the end of the current academic year. The statement also said the museum will not be sold or left vacant. It will be used for a “space that continues to enrich the student experience.”

“In the coming weeks, we will convene a discussion with our university community to explore how the museum building and its collections can continue to serve as assets to DePaul, elevating our academic prominence and supporting the recruitment, training and development of current and future students,” Manuel said.  

Regarding DPAM's important permanent collection of art, the administration plans to work with museum staff to determine where the 4,000 existing artworks will go. The DPAM website describes the collection as diverse in culture and geographic region, with more than 4​,000 objects, strong holdings by Chicago and regional artists, strengths in North American and Latin American photography, WPA-era prints, contemporary and traditional West African objects, and Eastern European graphic arts. 

The museum, at 935 W. Fullerton Ave., opened in 2011 and has been free for all. Its location underneath the Fullerton CTA El Station made it truly one of the most accessible museums in Chicago.

According to Manuel, DPAM has featured artworks from more than 600 Chicago artists and underrepresented artists. “We understand this decision may be disappointing for you and the broader arts community,” Manuel said. “It also helped foster an interdisciplinary learning environment for DePaul students and served as a cultural hub for community gatherings.”