The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries, as a part of the College of Arts and Letters at Old Dominion University, promotes the advancement of knowledge through research and scholarship in the arts and seeks to develop a respect for the dignity and worth of the individual, a capacity for critical reasoning and a genuine desire for learning in the campus and regional community. It fosters the extension of the boundaries of knowledge and is committed to the preservation and dissemination of a rich cultural heritage through exhibitions, lectures and seminars, classes, guided tours and special programs. In 2007 Baron and Ellin Gordon donated 375 folk art works by self-taught artists from their collection. The university relocated its galleries in 2007 to a new state-of-the-art 15,000-square-foot facility located at 4509 Monarch Way on the east side of campus. The Baron and Ellin Gordon Self-Taught Art Gallery showcases self-taught art and its relation to contemporary art with shows, drawing on the permanent collection and loans to the galleries. A second gallery, the changing gallery, focuses on works by contemporary artists of international, national and regional repute.
