[1] The museum was intended to be the center of a “cultural crossroads,” an idea brought forth by then-Indiana University President Herman B Wells.

Examples of diverse character will be brought to this gallery in order to show the multiple aspects of art both past and present.”[1] Establishing a permanent collection did not come to fruition until after World War II.

[6] Solley, a trained architect, was perfectly suited to start the process of establishing a separate building for the art museum.

Gealt served until 2015, and under her leadership the museum was a 2012 recipient of an Andrew J. Mellon Foundation endowment challenge grant, a $500,000 award.

[9] In late 2023, the museum canceled a planned retrospective exhibition of Palestinian artist Samia Halaby, a 1963 graduate of the university's MFA program.

[10][11][12] A university spokesperson told The New York Times in early 2024 that "academic leaders and campus officials canceled the exhibit due to concerns about guaranteeing the integrity of the exhibit for its duration," but Halaby told the Times that before the cancelation the museum's director had informed her of staff members' concerns over her social media posts in support of Palestinian causes and her comparing of the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war to genocide.

[13][14][10] Michigan State University's Broad Art Museum said in a statement that they will still host the exhibition in June 2024 as originally planned.

[15] Works by German and Austrian Expressionists August Macke, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Alexej von Jawlensky, Max Beckmann, and Emil Nolde, along with early modern European and American masters such as Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Georges Braque, and Kurt Schwitters, are in the museum's collection.

[5] American abstract artists such as Stuart Davis, Frank Stella, and Joseph Cornell are also featured in the museum's collection.

[5] The works-on-paper collection includes major works by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Francisco Goya.

There are also 19th century European paintings by Jean-Léon Gérôme, Charles Daubigny, Gustave Caillebotte ("Yerres, Rain Effect"), and Claude Monet ("Port of Argentieul") among others.

The Luzetta and Del Café and Gift Shop, located on the second floor of the Eskenazi Museum of Art, sells an array of art-inspired products for guests to purchase, along with a selection of food and beverage options.

They are suspended from the ceiling and give the appearance of a cloud of sheets of white paper blowing into the museum's Atrium from the outdoor Sculpture Terrace entrance.

Due to its popularity with the campus and community, Light Totem was approved by the Board of Trustees to become a permanent fixture outside the museum in 2010.

Artist Robert Shakespeare used LEDs (light-emitting diodes) to illuminate both the 70-foot freestanding tower, and the 40-foot tube within the atrium of the museum.