The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields has officially closed The Lume, its controversial immersive digital art gallery, following the conclusion of its final exhibition on Indigenous Australian art. Since its 2021 launch, the high-tech space hosted popular digital spectacles featuring the works of Van Gogh, Monet, and Dalí, but it will now be repurposed for a new contemporary art initiative that the museum claims will expand how audiences experience art.
The closure marks the end of a polarizing chapter for Newfields, as The Lume was often criticized for prioritizing commercial digital entertainment over traditional contemporary art scholarship. Its tenure coincided with a period of intense institutional turmoil, including the resignation of former president Charles Venable over a racially insensitive job posting and subsequent leadership turnover, signaling a potential shift back toward more conventional museum programming under current director Belinda Tate.