Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University is an art museum located in the Woldenberg Art Center on the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It has been historically known for its significant collection of Newcomb Pottery and other crafts produced at Newcomb College, as well as administering the art collections of the university. Since 2014, the institution has increasingly focused on exhibitions and programs that explore socially engaged art, civic dialogue, and community transformation. History In 1886, H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College was founded by Josephine Louise Newcomb in memory of her daughter Sophie. The first national coordinate college for women, Newcomb followed industrial trends offering intensive design training for decorative arts production. The endowment was established by Mrs. Newcomb to provide, perpetuate, and protect the women’s college indefinitely. In the 1970s, Tulane sought to use this endowment for the purpose of the entire university during a time of economic hardship. Later, in the 1980s an effort was initiated to close the college and incorporate it into Tulane University. At the time of the Newcomb Centennial Celebration in 1986, concerned graduates of Newcomb College met as an ad hoc committee to re-establish the intended purpose of the original endowment and to reaffirm the integrity of Newcomb College. The Tulane board of trustees ultimately affirmed the status of H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College and established a Board to administer the Newcomb Endowment. During this period, Mignon Faget, a New Orleans jewelry artist and a member of the committee, suggested establishing an art museum to maintain the legacy of Newcomb's art program and to ensure the permanence of Newcomb College. In the early 1990s, a grant funded by Joyce Frank Menschel, another Newcomb alumna, ultimately led to the establishment of such an institution. In 1996, the Newcomb Art Gallery became a reality when the Newcomb Art Department completed an expansion and renovation that included the addition of a exhibition space dedicated to presenting contemporary and historic exhibits to the Tulane and New Orleans communities. The gallery became its own department within the School of Liberal Arts. Although the gallery's administrative offices were flooded with four feet of water by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the art holdings were relatively undamaged. After Katrina, Tulane closed Newcomb College and diverted the school's endowment to other uses. In 2010, the gallery received a Community Arts Award from the Arts Council of New