Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
Eugene, Oregon
The University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art was established nearly 85 years ago with the Murray Warner Collection of Oriental Art. So it’s no surprise the museum is best known for its collection featuring more than 3,700 works from Japan, China and Korea. But the museum also houses an extensive collection of art from the Americas and Europe, as well as a strong Pacific Northwest collection, said communications manager Debbie Williamson-Smith.
With its intricate exterior brickwork and hidden interior courtyards, the building itself is a treat. The university’s dean of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts designed the building, which opened its door in 1933 and is now a designated National Historic Landmark.
Two halls serve as the museum’s primary event space, and both have attached courtyards. Large windows in the 1,800-square-foot Susie Papé Reception Hall flood the room with natural light and views of the formal landscaping in the adjoining South Courtyard. The 1,800-square-foot Cheryl Ramberg Lecture Hall, which has the attached North Courtyard, is better suited for presentations and films. Often, a group will meet in one hall and have lunch or dinner in the other, she said.
The Prince Lucien Campbell Memorial Courtyard is a “remarkable interior open-air courtyard, which is one of our most iconic locations,” Williamson-Smith said. The courtyard, with column-lined corridors and a tiled reflecting pool, is also a great space for group photos and displays.
Groups can arrange guided tours — the museum usually asks for about six weeks’ notice — and the museum will also work with the university’s art department to set up hands-on art classes and activities. Even if a meeting group doesn’t include a tour or a class, just being in the museum, wandering among the artwork during a break, is a benefit many other venues don’t offer.
“Anytime you can be in a cultural center or museum, it’s going to enhance your experience,” Williamson-Smith said, adding, “Unlike being in a hotel, you don’t take breaks and take a tour of the hotel.”
Waterloo Center for the Arts
Waterloo, Iowa
When people are surrounded by art, they can’t help but become “a little more creative” — even if they’re not inherently creative types, said Carrie Gleason, events coordinator for the Waterloo Center for the Arts.
The building sits on the banks of the Cedar River in Waterloo, Iowa, and because it boasts art galleries and a wide variety of event spaces available to the public, it serves as both a cultural center and a community hub.
Of the museum’s dozen event spaces, the Schoitz River Room is one of the most popular because it can hold up to 250 people or be split into two or three smaller spaces. Just outside the room, the Riverside Sculpture Plaza is an outdoor riverfront space for up to 150 people. The Petersen Town Hall can seat 165 for presentations, and the Law Court Theatre can seat 72. Two separate event rooms each have adjoining decks, both of which overlook the river, making them popular for meetings that use the outdoor space for breaks or lunch, or for evening receptions held beneath the patio’s string lights.
Just outside, a dramatic riverfront amphitheater has stadium seating and can accommodate events for up to 3,000 people, such as an annual fundraising campaign kickoff and a local company’s client appreciation celebration, complete with live music and a hog roast. A couple of blocks away, Expo Plaza is a large-scale outdoor space that can accommodate events for up to 5,000 people.
The Waterloo museum houses four galleries that are always rotating displays, including pieces from the permanent collection, which includes a large collection of Haitian art. The galleries are always open to attendees to explore before, during and after events. Groups can also schedule a guided tour or arrange for a hands-on art experience, such as a jewelry-making class or a wine-and-paint session with an instructor.
www.waterloocenterforthearts.org
Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo, Ohio
For a city of fewer than 300,000 residents, Toledo, Ohio, boasts a metropolitan art museum that would be the envy of larger cities. The Toledo Museum of Art was founded in 1901 and, in the 115 years since it opened in two rented rooms, has grown to include a 36-acre campus with six buildings that house the museum’s collection of more than 30,000 pieces.
The main museum building has 45 galleries, 15 classroom studios and a variety of spaces that are available for meetings during public hours and for after-hours events. During the day and in the evening, groups can use the historic 1,750-seat Peristyle concert hall,P where Greek columns surround the main seating area, and up to 300 reception guests can mingle in the Peristyle lobby amid marble columns, cobblestone floors and painted Greek friezes.
The smaller Little Theater has auditorium seating for 160, the Red and Yellow meeting rooms can host events for 30 to 50 people, and the Green Room can accommodate receptions for up to 200 guests.
After-hours, groups can gather in Libbey Court, an entry hall with marble floors, soaring columns and a skylight ceiling, or in the Cloister gallery, a medieval stone courtyard. The museum’s major works of art surround up to 350 guests during events in the Great Gallery, and another contemporary art gallery can host up to 100 guests for receptions.
Across the street is one of the museum’s claims to fame: the 74,000-square-foot Glass Pavilion that opened in 2006. The postmodern building houses the museum’s glass collection that features 5,000 pieces of glass art from antiquity to contemporary times. The architects designed the building with exterior and interior walls that feature large, curving glass panels. The result is a series of see-through spaces in the nearly transparent building. The GlasSalon can seat 230 people for dinner and can be used with the adjoining Crystal Corridor, the pavilion’s main passage, where reception guests can mingle beneath a Chihuly glass chandelier.
