Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Krannert Art Museum [PAGE 8]

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The University of Illinois has emphasized the fine and applied arts for many years and is now in the happy position of being able to bring certain objectives in these fields to fulfilment through the Krannert Art Museum, whose dedication this exhibition celebrates. An active exhibition program over many years, the acquisition of works of contemporary art, and the generous gifts of University friends of works from many different periods and cultures have brought together at the University of Illinois a permanent collection which has not until now, because of lack of proper exhibition facilities, been identified as a basic part of the total University program. The University has on numerous occasions shown works from its collections in many other places, and there have been times when it seemed as if the University's art possessions were better known away from the campus than they were on it. The exhibition deficiency has been magnificently corrected with the completion of the new museum. This building provides an ideal setting for the display and study of works of art. It will not only play an increasingly important part in the professional education of specialized students in the fields concerned, but it will also be an important asset in the total program of a comprehensive university. It marks, in a sense, the coming of age of this member of a great institutional family, and the University thus advances into a new dimension of service and achievement. The Krannert Art Museum stands also as an important example of the support which the state universities must increasingly seek from private sources. We are grateful for the initial impetus towards university collecting which was provided many years ago by Mr. and Mrs. Merle J. Trees of Chicago, for the primary support in the whole building program which has been so generously assumed by Mr. Herman C. Krannert of Indianapolis, for the special contributions made by members of the Class of 1908, for many other individual contributions, and for the major role taken by the officers and membership of the University of Illinois Foundation in sponsoring the entire project. The Krannert Art Museum is the result of a program which goes back over many years—a program built upon the activity, the thinking, and the faith of many people. The Museum holds forth a future which should place the University of Illinois in the forefront of those institutions which recognize the important part which art provides to the total educational process and to the human experience generally.

DAVID D. HENRY

President