Landes is also a board member of the Smart Museum of Art, which is located in the University of Chicago's Hyde Park Campus.

The Elisabeth & William M. Landes Gallery within the Smart Museum of Art features works created between the 1880s and the late 1950s.

Landes is a significant collector of art from the post-World War II period, particularly mid-century New York modern artists and social realism.

His collection also includes significant works by notable gay and politically left-leaning artists.

He has said that he does not collect them to achieve parity or make a political statement, but because the works are "representational, and excellent.