Spencer Museum of Art

All you want to know about Spencer Museum of Art

The Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art, or SMA, is an art museum on the campus of University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. While admission is free, donations are accepted. Also located inside the Spencer Museum of Art are the Kress Foundation Department of Art History, and the Murphy Library of Art & Architecture.

It is named for Helen Foresman Spencer whose husband Kenneth A. Spencer owned the Pittsburg and Midway Coal Company in Pittsburg, Kansas. Spencer also built the Jayhawk Ordnance in Galena, Kansas during World War II to create ammonium nitrate. After the war he acquired it from the government for his Spencer Chemical Company. Philanthropies at the University of Kansas include the Kenneth Spencer Research Library and the Kenneth Aldred Spencer Memorial Chapel at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

SMA is also the location of most Art History classes at KU. It is located on Mississippi Street, just across from the back of the Kansas Union, and is closed Mondays.