On trips to New Haven, CT in 2021 and 2025 for the Yale-Cornell game, I had enough time after the game to visit one of the University’s art museum’s that was located down the road from the stadium, the Yale University Art Museum. This four story museum displays the history of art from all over the world. It is by no means a small museum gallery and you will need more than one afternoon this very detailed museum.
The Yale University Art Gallery at 1111 Chapel Street
I started on the first floor with their Ancient Art galleries featuring items from digs that the university sponsored over 100 years ago. There are works from the Ancient Near East, Egypt and Europe from tiles from Mesopotamia to small idols from Egypt and funeral pieces from Europe beautifully displayed and lit.
The Ancient Arts Galleries
Babylonian Tiger
Palace carving of a genie
The gallery showed the level of sophistication of these societies and the advancement thousands of years ago. This lead to the Middle Ages Gallery showing the change of art after the fall of the Roman Empire.
The Ancient Galleries were a favorite of mine
The Ancient Galleries
The Ancient Galleries
In 2021, I raced through most of the other floors because I had an hour before the museum closed. I concentrated on the first floor and then went upstairs to see the special exhibition.
I next ventured next to the “On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale”, a current exhibition that showcased the work of Alumni of the Fine Arts School of Yale whose works were influencing the art community all over the world.
The “On the Basis of Art” exhibition
The show “showcases and celebrates the remarkable achievement of an impressive roster of women artists who have graduated from Yale University. Presented on the occasion of the two major milestones, the 50th Anniversary of coeducation at Yale College and the 150th anniversary of the first women students at the University, who to study at the Yale School of the Fine Arts when it opened in 1869.
The exhibition features works draws entirely from the collection of the Yale University Gallery that span a variety of media, such as painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography and video since 1891(Yale University website).
The exhibition spread over several galleries displaying all sorts of interesting art. What I enjoyed most was some of the contemporary drawings and sculpture. Their works were colorful and bold some of which I was impressed with the message the works were trying to portray. Some I understood and some I had to take a second look.
One of the works that really captured my attention was the work of a Black media artist from the 1970’s and her views of racism of always feeling like the only one in the room. It was a sensitive and very emotional viewpoint of a educated and sophisticated woman who always felt marginalized. It was a very honest approach to the work and you felt for her.
The Contemporary Galleries
In 2025, I had a quick tour of the ‘Nusantana’ exhibition of textiles from Southern Asia.
The display sign for the ‘Nusantara’ exhibition
The entrance to the ‘Nusantara’ Indonesian textiles exhibition
The exhibition:
(from the Yale Art Gallery website)
Nusantara: Six Centuries of Indonesian Textiles presents one of Southeast Asia’s most significant artistic accomplishments: woven textiles. Exploring the ancient interisland links found in this culturally diverse maritime region, the exhibition features a wide array of textiles from the 14th to the 20th century drawn from the Yale University Art Gallery’s exceptional holdings—from the batiks of Java to the ikat of Sumba, and from ceremonial cloths and ritual weavings to clothing, shrouds, and architectural hangings.
Especially remarkable are several early textiles that are intricately patterned with tie-dyed designs, while select three-dimensional objects, such as sculptures, headgear, and combs, are also included to provide context. Nusantara—from the original name for the Indonesian archipelago—offers a broad overview of the rich imagery and technical mastery of this remarkable art form.
The textile display
The textile display
For the last half hour in the museum, I was able to quickly tour the each of the other galleries touring the Contemporary Galleries, the Asian Galleries, admiring some of the idols on display and then taking a quick tour of the African Galleries admiring masks and statuary.
I started with a quick tour of the Asian Galleries.
The Asian Galleries
The Asian scrolls in the Asian Gallery
The Asian Gallery
The Asian Gallery
I then toured the Contemporary Galleries with the modern approach to painting.
The Contemporary Gallery
The Contemporary Gallery
They even had a Basquiat in the collection
I rushed through the Middle Ages Gallery as all the religious art has always creeped me out.
The Middle Ages galleries
I then toured the African Collections.
The African Collection
The African Collection
The African Collection
The African Gallery
One of the interesting pieces I saw in the collection
The last collection I toured was the Indo-Pacific Art collection.
The description of the Gallery
The gold art from the collection
The interesting textiles
There is a lot to see here
You will need more than an hour to tour this museum and admire its works. I will be back in the future.
History of the Museum:
(from the Museum’s website)
The Yale University Art Gallery collects, preserves, studies and presents art in all media, from all regions of the globe and across time. The museum’s exceptional collection, numbering nearly 300,000 objects, is the core of its identity. It sustains and catalyzes all we do.
Exploring the galleries
Founded in 1832, The Gallery is the oldest university art museum in America. Today, it is a center for teaching, learning and scholarship and is a preeminent cultural asset for Yale University, the wider academic community and the public. The museum is open to all, free of charge and is committed to engaging audiences through thoughtful, creative, and relevant exhibitions, programs and publications.
The Museum’s Collection:
The Gallery’s encyclopedic collection can engage every interest. Spanning one and a half city blocks and three buildings, the museum features more than 4,000 works on display as well as a rooftop terrace and a sculpture garden.
The Pacific Rim Collection
Galleries showcase artworks from ancient times to the present, including vessels from Tang-dynasty China, early Italian paintings, textiles from Borneo, treasures from American art, masks from West Africa, modern and contemporary art, ancient sculptures, masterworks by Degas, Van Gogh and Picasso and more
On a recent trip to New Haven, CT for the Yale versus Cornell game, I had enough time after the game to visit one of the University’s art museum’s that was located down the road from the stadium, the Yale University Art Museum. This four story museum displays the history of art from all over the world. It is by no means a small museum gallery and you will need more than one afternoon this very detailed museum.
The Yale University Art Gallery at 1111 Chapel Street
I started on the first floor with their Ancient Art galleries featuring items from digs that the university sponsored over 100 years ago. There are works from the Ancient Near East, Egypt and Europe from tiles from Mesopotamia…
I updated my trip to New Haven blog because of yesterday’s visit for the 2019 Cornell-Yale football game. There are a lot of improvements in the town today and a lot more life there then when I lived there.
The New Haven Green in Downtown New Haven, CT.
I also updated this again in September of 2021 for the Yale vs Cornell game. We lost again
The inside of the Yale Bowl
The front of Frank Pepe and their delicious Clam Pizza
I took time from my walk to be a supportive Alumni and go up to New Haven, Connecticut for the Cornell versus Yale game on September 30, 2017. I also watched us get our butts kicked with the score 49-24. I swear, every time I thought we would catch up, we fell behind. We kept going through quarterbacks throughout the game.
It was even worse for the September 2019 game. We were tie with Yale, who does not look that good either, at 3-3 at half (I thought that was bad enough) but in the third quarter were lead 10-3 with an 85 yard run touchdown and looked really good. Then our quarterback through an interception that lead to a Yale touchdown and at 10-10 he was so rattled by that, the game was never the same. He threw three more interceptions and we botched an onside kick (Cornell is…
mywalkinmanhattan 