Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art

The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art is an accredited art museum on the campus of Auburn University in Alabama. When it opened on October 3, 2003, the museum contained six exhibition galleries within its 40000 sqft of interior space.

The museum includes an auditorium, cafe, and a museum shop. Outside the main building, the grounds encompass 7 acre of land, featuring an English-inspired formal area and woodland landscape, outdoor sculpture, and landscaped walking paths around the lake.

In 2000, the university named as director Michael De Marsche who oversaw the facility's design and construction. He was replaced by Joseph Ansell as interim director who was also head of the university's Department of Art. In 2006, Marilyn Laufer was named interim co-director, then director in 2007, remaining in that position until retiring in 2018.

In spring of 2013, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) recognized the museum as an accredited museum. In 2022, the AAM awarded the museum re-accreditation.

The museum is named after Jule Collins Smith, the wife of Albert Smith, who graduated from Auburn University in 1947. Smith donated $3 million to the project as a gift to his wife, in honor of their 50th wedding anniversary.

Permanent collection
The museum's permanent collection focuses mainly on 19th and 20th century American and European Art. The museum includes works by Romare Bearden, Ralston Crawford, Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, John Marin, and Ben Shahn within its Advancing American Art collection. Within the museum's Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Collection are 114 prints by naturalist John James Audubon. In addition, the museum contains the Bill L. Harbert Collection of European Art, which features works by Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Exhibition highlights
In addition to its exhibitions of works in the permanent collection, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art organizes exhibitions and secures collection loans with significant historic value for special presentations. Past exhibition highlights include Face to Face: Artists’ Self-Portraits from the Collection of Jackye and Curtis Finch Jr., John Himmelfarb: TRUCKS, Rembrandt, Rubens, Gainsborough and the Golden Age of Painting in Europe, Shared Vision: The Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez-Falla Collection of Photography, Tamarind Touchstones: Fabulous at Fifty Celebrating Excellence in Fine Art Lithography and Art Interrupted: Advancing American Art and the Politics of Cultural Diplomacy.

The 1072 Society Exhibition was established by Laufer in 2007 as a yearly showcase of potential acquisitions to the permanent collection with the objective of raising funds for purchasing them.

Out of the Box was created to be a biennial juried, outdoor sculpture competition and exhibition that began in 2013. The 2017 event awarded first prize in 2018 to Stacy Rathert's piece entitled You Are Here. The 2019 edition was held concurrently with an installation of a sculpture by Patrick Dougherty, Down Where Paradise Lay. The program was created in celebration of the museum’s tenth anniversary.

As a part of the university, the museum partners triennially with the College of Liberal Arts for the Auburn University Department of Art and Art History Exhibition.

The museum participates in the North American Reciprocal Museums program, the Southeastern Reciprocal Membership program, and the Museum Travel Alliance. The museum holds memberships in the American Alliance of Museums, the Southeastern Museums Conference, the Association of Art Museum Directors.

A Little Lunch Music
From 2007 to 2020, A Little Lunch Music was a weekly free-concert series held every Thursday in fall and spring with invited performers.