Carnegie Center for Art & History

The Carnegie Center for Art & History, within the Downtown Historic District of New Albany, Indiana, is a contemporary art gallery and local history museum. The building was initially built as a Carnegie Library, first opened on March 2, 1904, with 11,125 total books. It is of Beaux-Arts architecture style. It was used as a library until 1969, when the new New Albany-Floyd County Public Library was built. After a $1.2 million renovation in 1998, the name was changed to the Carnegie Center for Art & History to better reflect its mission and library heritage. In 2015, total attendance was 26,690 and Carnegie Center staff presented 107 programs to participants of all ages.  Three part-time trained volunteers come in weekly to manage a collection of over 5,000 objects. 

In addition to changing exhibits of contemporary art, the Carnegie Center has two permanent exhibitions. The first is entitled "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage: Men and Women of the Underground Railroad," which includes an interactive multimedia program. TThe second permanent exhibit is entitled "Remembered: The Life of Lucy Higgs Nichols".