About

Our Mission

The mission of the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University is to educate and inspire campus and community members with original works of American art and international religious art, and to bring distinction to Valparaiso University and Northwest Indiana through exhibitions of regional, national, and international importance.

Collection Goals

• To collect, preserve, study, exhibit, and teach significant works of art.
• To serve the general art education needs of all students, faculty, and staff, as well as the specific art education needs of those studying the arts and humanities.
• To present the world of art as one that ranges from the artist to a certain locale or region to the nation and/or world.
• To include expressions of religious, especially Christian, faith experiences.
• To include an appropriate representation of all mainstream media (such as painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and decorative arts) to support the various media taught in the Valparaiso University art department.
• To continue developing the Brauer’s two collections: 1) American art, the primary collection, and 2) international religious art, the secondary collection.
• To make the Brauer’s American art collection as comprehensive as possible by including significant examples of all vital directions in American art and cultural history.
• To increase the coherence of direction in the American art collection by 1) acquiring works that anchor that direction and are therefore always on display, and 2) acquiring supporting and perhaps amplifying works that, because of spatial and other considerations, may be rotated in and out of exhibition.