Chazen Museum of Art
Free galleries move from ancient Mediterranean objects to prints, modern painting, and Wisconsin artists in two connected buildings at the heart of campus.
Artwork inspired by John Steuart Curry
The Chazen’s breadth is its advantage and its trap. European old masters, Soviet nonconformist art, Japanese prints, ancient objects, American painting, and works on paper can blur together if approached as coverage; choose one material—woodcut, bronze, oil, ceramic—and follow how different makers make surface carry belief or status.
Because admission is free and the museum sits directly on the UW–Madison campus, a focused forty-five-minute return can be more rewarding than a single exhaustive visit. Check what is actually on view, use the study and educational spaces when available, and notice how the bridge joins not only two buildings but public Madison and university life.
- Admission
- Free
- Setting
- UW–Madison campus
- Strength
- Prints and works on paper
Quick guide
- Choose one material
- Follow paint, print, metal, or clay across periods so distant rooms begin speaking to one another
- Cross the bridge awake
- Look outward at University Avenue and inward at the transition between the Elvehjem and expansion buildings
Build a small argument across a very broad collection
- Choose one material
- Follow paint, print, metal, or clay across periods so distant rooms begin speaking to one another.
- Find a Wisconsin voice
- Use a regionally connected artist to test what the museum means by local within a global collection.
- Cross the bridge awake
- Look outward at University Avenue and inward at the transition between the Elvehjem and expansion buildings.
- Return for works on paper
- Light-sensitive prints and drawings rotate, so repeat visits can reveal an entirely different collection.
Good to know
Only a fraction of the large collection is displayed at once; online collection records do not guarantee that an object is currently in a gallery.
Notice these
- Glass bridge
- Elvehjem galleries
- Rotating works on paper