The Benton houses a permanent collection of over 6,500 artistic works and hosts special exhibitions, concerts, campus art walks, and other events.

The museum is named in honor of the prominent U.S. senator and university trustee William Benton.

[1] Constructed in 1920 and used for twenty years as University's main dining hall, the Benton opened officially as an art museum in 1967.

[2] Developed over the ensuing decades, the museum's permanent collection includes works by Childe Hassam, Henry Ward Ranger, Emil Carlson, Charles Harold Davis, Ernest Lawson, Ellen Emmet Rand, Guy Wiggins, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Hart Benton, Fairfield Porter, George Bellows, Gustav Klimt, Rembrandt Peale, Georges Braque, Edward Burne-Jones, Reginald Marsh, Käthe-Kollwitz, Arthur Bowen Davies, Maurice Prendergast and Kiki Smith.

The collection is strongest in modern and American art, but some works date to the Renaissance, and exhibits are highly diverse.