DePaul University is shutting down its Lincoln Park art museum, pulling the plug on the DePaul Art Museum on June 30, 2026, at the end of the academic year. The closure will end nearly 15 years of programming in the 2011-built campus gallery, which has doubled as a teaching lab and public exhibition space and currently holds more than 4,000 objects in its care. The announcement has artists, students and faculty scrambling for answers about what happens to the collection next.
University frames closure as 'reimagining' the arts
In a campus-wide message titled "Reimagining the arts at DePaul," university leaders said they plan to end museum operations and "work with DPAM staff to make appropriate determinations about the permanent collection, following museum standards for best practices," according to DePaul University. The university added that it does not intend to sell the museum building at 935 W. Fullerton or leave it sitting empty, describing the move as part of a broader effort to better align arts resources across campus.
Museum staff and curators react
Laura-Caroline de Lara, the museum’s director, called the decision a "deep loss" for DePaul and for Chicago’s arts ecosystem, according to the Chicago Sun‑Times. She told the paper she had worked to raise funds to preserve staff and student positions through the end of the academic year.
The transition is already reshaping the staff. Curator Ionit Behar departed DPAM earlier this month for a curator role at the Museum of Contemporary Art, a move MCA Chicago confirmed in a January press release.
Budget squeeze pushed the decision
The museum’s closure comes on the heels of a December reduction in force in which DePaul cut 114 full- and part-time positions as it tried to chip away at a budget shortfall, CBS Chicago reported. University leaders and spokespeople have pointed to a sharp decline in international graduate enrollment, growing financial-aid needs and higher benefits costs as key drivers of the financial crunch.
Part of a national funding crunch
Museum staff told the Sun‑Times that DPAM lost an anticipated $500,000 in Institute of Museum and Library Services funding that had supported work with Chicago Public Schools, and the paper noted the museum’s permanent collection tops 4,000 objects. That shortfall plugs into a larger national pattern: roughly one-third of U.S. museums reported cancellations of government grants or contracts last year, according to the American Alliance of Museums' 2025 snapshot, American Alliance of Museums.
Final shows and what comes next
Before the lights go out, DPAM still plans to host two final exhibitions. Shows featuring Barbara Nessim and Alice Tippit are slated to open March 5 and run straight through the museum’s closure, according to listings from DePaul University. In its announcement, the university said it will organize conversations with faculty, students and staff in the coming weeks to explore how the building and the permanent collection might continue to serve academic programs and the wider city.
For Chicago artists, students and instructors who relied on the DePaul Art Museum as both a classroom and a public platform, the shutdown lands as an abrupt loss. As DePaul reshapes how it supports the arts across campus, how it handles the collection, the remaining staff and existing community partnerships will be the real test of whether this "reimagining" manages to preserve the museum’s legacy or simply closes a chapter.
