The Chazen Museum of Art is an art museum accredited by the American Alliance of Museums located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin.
Until 2005 the Museum was known as the Elvehjem Museum of Art, in honour to Conrad Elvehjem, an internationally known biochemist in nutrition. In 1937 Elvehjem identified a molecule found in fresh meat and yeast as a new vitamin, nicotinic acid, now called niacin. His discovery led directly to the cure of human pellagra, once a major health problem in the United States.
In May 2005 the Museum was renamed to Chazen Museum of Art after a $20 million donation from Simona and Jerome A. Chazen (one of the founders of Liz Claiborne and also UW-Madison alumnus) towards an expansion of the museum. The museum was supposed to raise the remaining $15 million required for the expansion. The building housing the museum retains the Elvehjem name.
The mission of the museum is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit works of art and present related educational programs in support of the teaching, research, and public service mission of the university.
European artists represented at this art museum include Joan Miró, Auguste Rodin, Barnaba da Modena, Andrea Vanni, Giorgio Vasari, Hubert Robert, Thomas Gainsborough, Benjamin Williams Leader, Eugène Boudin, and Maximilien Luce. The museum also has a large collection of American works, including contemporary works by the likes of Shusaku Arakawa. This museum has a fine collection of regionalist paintings by John Steuart Curry and Russian Social Realist paintings by Georgy Ionin and Klavdy Vasiliyevich Lebedev.
Chamber concerts known as Sunday Afternoon from the Chazen (formerly Live at the Elvehjem) have been broadcast from the museum by Wisconsin Public Radio for decades.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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