Галерея искусств Йельского университета: История и архитектура

The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Although it embraces all cultures and periods, the gallery emphasizes early Italian Renaissance painting, African sculpture, and modern art.

The gallery was founded in 1832 when patriot artist John Trumbull donated over 100 paintings of the American Revolution to Yale College and designed the original picture gallery. This building on the university's Old Campus was razed in 1901. Street Hall, designed by Peter Bonnett Wight, was opened as the Yale School of the Fine Arts in 1866, and included exhibition galleries on the second floor. The exterior was in a neo Gothic style, with an appearance influenced by 13th century Venetian palaces. These spaces are the oldest ones still in use as part of the Yale University Art Gallery. Although the Art Gallery with steel structure and reinforced concrete may seem simple to the eye, it was designed in a rigorous process. Kahn and Anne Tyng, the first woman licensed as an architect in the state of Pennsylvania and an employee of Kahn's independent practice, "devised a slab that was to be poured into metal forms in the shape of three sided pyramids. When the forms were removed, they left a thick mass of concrete imprinted with tetrahedral openings." Kahn's addition "was a box of glass, steel, concrete, and tiny beige bricks", and had none of the features of the earlier galleries. One critic said that Kahn's building "could have scarcely have been distinguished from a Woolco discount store in a shopping center", and that the interior looked like an "underground parking garage". In 1998, the gallery began a major renovation and expansion. A renovation of the 1953 building was completed in December 2006 by Polshek Partnership Architects, who returned many spaces to Kahn's original vision.

The project was completed on December 12, 2012, at a cost of $135 million, under then director Jock Reynolds. The expanded space totals
In December 2011, the museum announced an $11 million gift from alumnus Stephen Susman, to create additional art exhibition galleries in a newly created fourth floor atop the Old Yale Art Gallery building. The expansion was completed in 2012, and included space for a rooftop sculpture garden.

On the second floor (of the gallery) was a very valuable collection of paintings by John Trumbull, mainly of historical events. Among them were his well known paintings of the Battle of Bunker Hill, Death of Montgomery before Quebec, Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, Declaration of Independence, etc. Trumbull gave the paintings to Yale in consideration of an annuity of $1,000 and subject to the condition that he and his wife should be forever buried beneath the pictures.|author=George E. Verrill|title=The Ancestry, Life and Work of Addison E. Verrill of Yale University

The encyclopedic collections of the gallery number more than 200,000 objects ranging in date from ancient times to the present day. The permanent collection includes:

As an affiliate of Yale University, the gallery offers education programs for university students, New Haven schools, and the general public. Two such programs are: the Gallery Guide program, founded in 1998, which trains undergraduate students to lead tours at the museum; and the Wurtele Gallery Teachers, established in 2006, which include Yale graduate students from all school and backgrounds, who give curricula informed tours to K 12 audiences. The museum is a member of the North American Reciprocal Museums program, but charges no admission.