Ogelthorpe University’s Museum of Art (OUMA) is the only small liberal arts university museum in the Southeast that regularly features exhibits of national and international significance. It also plays an important role in the school’s art curriculum, providing direct exposure to visual art of the highest caliber, and a valuable compliment to classroom and studio courses.

The permanent collection at OUMA includes paintings, sculpture, prints and photography. Its finest holdings include a collection of modern realist paintings, family photographs of Claude Monet, and an original engraving of Victor Hugo by sculptor Auguste Rodin. Notable recent exhibitions include The Mystical Arts of Tibet (featuring a collection of personal objects sacred to the Dalai Lama), The Grand Tour – Landscape and Veduta Paintings, Venice and Rome in the 18th Century, and Four from Madrid – Contemporary Spanish Realism. These and other exhibitions have brought some of the world’s leading art experts to Oglethorpe’s campus to lecture on various subjects in art history and scholarship.

The current OUMA is an offshoot of the Oglethorpe University Art Gallery (opened in 1984), which underwent extensive renovation in 1992, reopening the following year. Its 7,000 square feet of gallery space occupy the entire third floor of OU’s Philip Weltner Library, hosting thousands of visitors from Atlanta and beyond throughout the year.