Snite Museum of Art
The Snite Research Center in the Visual Arts, formerly known as the Snite Museum of Art, is the former art museum of the University of Notre Dame, located on its campus near South Bend, Indiana. The museum held around 30,000 works of art spanning cultures, eras, and media. It supported faculty teaching and research and through programs, lectures, workshops, and exhibitions.
Snite Museum of Art

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- Name
- Snite Research Center in the Visual Arts
- Founded
- 1980
- Headquarters
- United States
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Documentary summary
The Snite Research Center in the Visual Arts, formerly known as the Snite Museum of Art, is the former art museum of the University of Notre Dame, located on its campus near South Bend, Indiana. The museum held around 30,000 works of art spanning cultures, eras, and media. It supported faculty teaching and research and through programs, lectures, workshops, and exhibitions.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
gnd · 1216140-8 · wikidata · Q125631318 · wikipedia · Snite Museum of Art
In this article
Overview
Overview
Students played a role as gallery guides and as student advisory members. In April 2023, the Snite Museum closed in anticipation of the completion of the new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, less than half a mile to the south, which opened in December 2023. The building was renamed as a research center, and currently supports ongoing care of the collection and research for the Raclin Murphy's holdings and houses the curatorial and administrative offices.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Snite Research Center in the Visual Arts • Established — 1980 • Location — University of Notre Dame 100 Moose Krause Circle Notre Dame, Indiana • Type — Art
History
History
The Bishops Gallery and Museum of Indian Antiquities established about 1875 in the Main Building, preceded the Snite Museum building which was constructed in 1980. By 1924, the Wightman Memorial Art Gallery had opened in Bond Hall. In 1952, O'Shaughnessy Hall, home of the Notre Dame College of Arts and Letters, included exhibition galleries. During the 1950s, Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović was in residence at the university, working in the eponymous Meštrović Studio. In 1975, the Fred B. Snite family donated funds to construct the Snite Museum of Art. The museum opened in 1980, incorporating both Meštrović's sculpture studio (Snite is also home to the Ivan Meštrović papers) and the O'Shaughnessy art gallery, the latter used for the presentation of traveling and temporary exhibitions. Joseph Antenucci Becherer became new director of the museum in 2018. With a new museum being constructed elsewhere on the campus, the Snite Museum closed in 2023, with plans to become the Snite Research Center in the Visual Arts.
Museum Building and future replacement
Museum Building and future replacement
• Illustration — Portrait of Beatrice II d'Esteby Bartolomeo Veneto, part of the Renaissance collection The museum opened in the fall of 1980, consolidating the adjacent O'Shaughnessy Hall Galleries and the studio of sculptor Ivan Meštrović with the new structure. The 70,000 square-foot building, designed by Ambrose Richardson, A.I.A., was a gift of the Snite Family in memory of Frederick Jr. '33. With the donation in 2018 of funds from lead benefactors Ernestine Raclin and her daughter and son-in-law Carmen and Chris Murphy, enabled the construction of the new Museum complex built in two phases on the south edge of campus. The first phase of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art includes approximately 70,000 square feet which houses the museum galleries and other functions. The design firm Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) were the architects of the new museum, appointed in 2019. Construction began in April 2020 and the new building was opened on 1 December 2023.
Outreach programs
Outreach programs
Throughout the year, the Museum provides curriculum-related tours for 7,000 area-school children; after-school and summer programs at the Robinson Community Learning Center; summer art camps for at-risk children; art instruction for student teachers; and workshops for local K-12 instructors.
Identity
Identity
Snite Museum of Art is associated with United States. Recorded from 1980.
Institutional history
Dated record
Institutional history
Explore 1980–1987
The full dated record · 3 entries
1980
Snite Museum of Art established.
1980
Snite Museum of Art is recorded from 1980.
1987
Selected works from the Snite Museum of Art, the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana (1987) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- United States
Sculpture park
A private donation by Charles S. Hayes made possible the creation of a public space for reflection, contemplation, and enjoyment of nature and art. Reopened in 2017, the Charles B. Hayes Family Sculpture Park was designed by American landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh on an eight-acre site at the south edge of the Notre Dame campus. A part of the Museum's permanent collection, the twelve sculptures in the park are by national and international artists, including Wing Generator by Richard Hunt.
Collections
Collections
The Museum's holdings include prints, photography, French 18th- and 19th painting, Baroque period paintings, decorative arts, African art, Olmec and Mesoamerican art, Native American art and 20th-century art. Donated and gifted collections include the Jack and Alfrieda Feddersen Collection of Rembrandt Etchings; the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of 19th-Century French Art; the John D. Reilly Collection of Old Master and 19th-Century Drawings, the Janos Scholz Collection of 19th-Century European Photographs; the Mr. and Mrs. Russell G. Ashbaugh Jr. Collection of Meštrović Sculpture and Drawings; the George Rickey Sculpture Archive; and the Virginia A. Martin Collection of 18th-Century Decorative Arts.
Holdings and surviving copies
Where the work is held
Holdings and surviving copies
Where material relating to Snite Museum of Art is held.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q125631318: Snite Museum of Art
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Snite Museum of Art”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 1216140-8, Snite Museum of Art.
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.History of the Museum, How We Started at the Museum site
- 2.Notre Dame Magazine. Packed Schedule. May 16, 2023.
- 3.Tfaoi.com. Snite Museum of Art.
- 4.Archives.nd.edu. Notre Dame Archives Inventory: MST.
- 5.Joseph Antenucci Becherer appointed director of Snite Museum of Art. Artforum. October 10, 2018.
- 6.Dome regilding, other construction projects continue into fall semester. The Observer. August 28, 2023.
- 7.Notre Dame Raclin Murphy Museum of Art opens with global local history. South Bend Tribune. November 22, 2023.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 1216140-8, Snite Museum of Art.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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