Nasher Museum of Art

In 1936, art collector William Hayes Ackland wrote letters to three universities, attempting to find a place to bequest his collection to upon his death. Duke University President William Preston Few was receptive to this idea, and had plans drawn up for an art museum at Duke. After the death of both Few and Ackland, Duke refused to accept the gift, for reasons still not disclosed. Ackland's estate had to posthumously find a new location to build a museum, eventually creating the Ackland Art Museum.

In 1969, the university established the Duke University Museum of Art on Duke's East Campus with medieval art from the Ernest Brummer Collection.

In the later twentieth century, there was a push to move the location of the museum to a more central location. Professors of botany fought the plan because the new location would disturb the "botanical study area," a field of plants.

In the early twenty-first century, in part from a gift by alumnus Raymond Nasher, the museum became known as the Nasher Museum of Art and opened a new $24 million museum designed by architect Rafael Viñoly. Since its reopening, annual attendance is about 100,000 visitors.

Mary D.B.T., great-granddaughter of Benjamin Newton Duke, brother of James Buchanan Duke, and James H. Semans were major contributors to the university art museum. From 1987 to 2003, Michael Mezzatesta was the director and oversaw the construction of the museum's new site. Kim Rorschach was the museum's founding director from 2004-2012. Sarah Schroth, former Nancy Hanks Senior Curator, was the director of the museum from 2013-2020. Trevor Schoonmaker, the museum's first curator of contemporary art, has been the museum director from May 2020-present.