Students Protest Depaul Art Museum Closure With“Waiting” Performance

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Students at DePaul University staged a public protest performance titled“Waiting” on October 8 in response to the June closure of the DePaul Art Museum (DPAM). The event, held at 5 pm outside the museum's shuttered doors, drew more than 100 people who stood in a solemn line for an hour.

The closure has generated significant dissatisfaction within Chicago's arts community, particularly among students.“The art department feels underfunded and forgotten by the administration,” said Ursula DeBray, a 22-year-old art student from Washington state.“Closing the museum felt like DePaul took ten steps backwards.” Another art student, Jaret Ledford, added,“It's showing that there was a community that got impacted by funding decisions.”

DPAM previously offered a cultural hub for the campus and its Lincoln Park neighborhood, providing educational and work-study opportunities. Although the museum's public access is halted, it maintains minimal staffing for class visits and to fulfill obligations for a funded museum studies fellowship.

On October 9, the university addressed the protest in a statement, acknowledging the peaceful demonstration and citing budgetary constraints faced by many institutions nationwide.“The arts are a critical part of DePaul's community and academic offerings, and the university has no plans to sell the art collection or the building,” the statement said. University leadership is collaborating with a faculty task force to determine the future of the space and collection, with recommendations expected in December.

Many protesters, including artists, students, and faculty, expressed frustration over the university's perceived prioritization of sports. Days before the protest, DePaul had broken ground on a $42 million sports complex after demolishing four 1890s rowhouses, a site located near the museum. Independent researcher and curator Dana Boutin, holding an“I DPAM” sign, commented,“I don't quite understand some of the funding priorities of academic institutions.”

Boutin also referenced a similar situation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), which recently sold the 19th-century home of the Roger Brown Study Collection. Painter and collector Roger Brown had gifted his home and studio to SAIC in 1996, though its contents were later donated to the Wisconsin-based Art Preserve. Boutin views such closures as detrimental to student learning and professional experience, calling these spaces“laboratories for students to learn and get professional experience.”

Despite the closure, DPAM's director, Laura-Caroline de Lara, remains to oversee its 4,000-piece collection. She reported receiving numerous external loan requests and is in discussions with the Art Bridges Foundation regarding its collection-sharing program. The museum's lights remain on, and its collection will not be dispersed, offering a glimmer of hope amidst the wistful mood among protesters.

Source: The Art Newspaper

MENAFN23102026005694012507ID1111857943