Founded in 1958, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is a premier destination for exhibitions and programs that encompass all facets of civilization’s visual history. The museum is located midway between Miami and Palm Beach in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale, one of the fastest growing areas in the U.S. Its distinctive modernist building, which opened in 1986, was designed by renowned architect Edward Larrabee Barnes and is a dynamic cultural hub in Fort Lauderdale’s Arts and Entertainment District. The 83,000 square-foot building contains over 25,000 square feet of exhibition space, the 256-seat Horvitz Auditorium, and Museum Store and Café.
The museum’s international exhibition program is overseen by Bonnie Clearwater, Museum Director and Chief Curator, which aims to challenge viewers’ perceptions of the world around them, who joined the museum in 2013. NSU Art Museum’s permanent collection contains 6,000 works. Highlights include the country’s largest collection of 19th and early 20th century paintings and drawings by American realist William Glackens; the most extensive holding in the U.S. of works by post-World War II, avant-garde Cobra artists from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam; and a celebrated Latin American art collection. In 2008, the museum became part of Nova Southeastern University, one of the largest private research universities in the U.S.