Program areas at Menil Foundation
See Schedule OExhibitions, art displays, and neighborhood enhancement: The Menil Collection regularly rotates displays of its permanent collection and organizes loan exhibitions, primarily in the main museum building and in the Menil Drawing Institute. The Menil's thirty-acre campus includes three other art buildings - Cy Twombly Gallery, the Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall, and the Byzantine Fresco Chapel along with bungalows serving as staff offices, and a bookstore. The Menil Foundation rents out a number of properties in the neighborhood, including some to other non-profits at discounted rates, and maintains a significant amount of green space, which contributes to the unique vitality of the Menil neighborhood. Additionally the Foundation maintains the historic Menil House, the former residence of the museum's founders, which is located in a nearby neighborhood, and serves as the site for museum functions.
Education and public programs - Each year the Menil presents a variety of free educational programs and events, including artist and curator lectures, panel discussions and book readings, musical performances, and film screenings. Since 1989, the Menil and the non-profit Writers in the Schools have collaborated to offer an experiential arts education program that introduces young students to fine arts and creative writing.
Curatorial and collections - The Menil cares for more than 17,000 works of art in its permanent collection spanning the prehistoric to the present day. The museum's holdings comprise four primary areas of focus: artifacts and objects from the civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean, Egypt, and the Near East; medieval and Byzantine art, objects, and icon paintings; the arts of Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas and the American Pacific Northwest; and modern and contemporary paintings, sculptures, drawings and works on paper, photography, and installations, with concentrations in Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Minimalism.
Membership - The Menil Collection offers three categories of membership, each with a unique focus and benefits. In addition to general memberships, the museum's Menil Contemporaries program is a membership group for emerging patrons, collectors, and art enthusiasts who share a common passion for the Menil Collection. The Menil Society is a group of committed patrons who enjoy a strong relationship with the Menil. Members are dedicated to fostering deeper engagement with the museum, its mission, and its world-renowned collection by generously supporting exhibitions, programming, and the museum's annual fund.