Allen Memorial Art Museum

The Allen Memorial Art Museum (abbreviated 'AMAM') is located in Oberlin, Ohio and is run by Oberlin College. Founded in 1917, its collection is one of the finest of any college or university museum in the United States, consistently ranking among those of Harvard and Yale. The collection contains over 14,000 works of art.

The AMAM is primarily a teaching museum, and it is a vital cultural resource for the students, faculty, and staff of Oberlin College as well as the surrounding community. Notable strengths include seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art, nineteenth and early twentieth-century European and contemporary American art, and Asian, European, and American works on paper. The collection is housed in an impressive Italian Renaissance-style building designed by Cass Gilbert and named after its founder, Dr. Dudley Peter Allen (B.A., 1875), a distinguished graduate and trustee of Oberlin College.

The AMAM is also known for its art rental program which enables Oberlin College students to rent works of art by notable artists such as Renoir, Picasso, and Dalí for five dollars a semester.

In 1977, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown designed an addition that represents one of the earliest and finest examples of postmodern architecture in the United States. In 2011, the historic museum underwent a two-year retrofit; after which it was awarded with USGBC LEED Gold certification. [source]