View world-class pieces of artwork from internationally and nationally renowned artists, as well as local talent at the Brenau University Galleries, which are located on the historic Gainesville campus. Brenau houses four different exhibition spaces, and the galleries serve as both an educational and cultural resource for Northeast Georgia through providing free public programming and shows.
History at a glance
Although Brenau has embraced artistic expression for the past 140-plus years, the first permanent art collection was installed in 1986, through the efforts of John S. Burd, who was the university’s president at the time. He reached out to the community for donations to the collection and helped designate the gallery’s space — a small chapel outside Pearce Auditorium, now known as the Presidents Gallery. Today, there are four gallery spaces on Brenau’s historic campus: the Presidents Gallery; Sellars Gallery in the Simmons Visual Arts Center; Leo Castelli Gallery in the John S. Burd Center for Performing Arts; and the Manhattan Gallery in the Brenau Downtown Center.
Brenau’s collection encompasses over 3,500 works, includes drawings, paintings and sculptures by Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), Anna Elizabeth Klumpke (1856-1942), Clyde Connell (1901-1998), and William King (1925-2015). The collection also includes many Pop art prints by Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), and Frank Stella, as well as significant works from Georgia artists, including Maria Artemis, Beverly Buchanan (1940-2015), Lamar Dodd (1909-1996), Ruth Laxson (1924-2019) and R.A. Miller (1912-2006).
