The Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum permanent collection is a visual learning resource and an archive of contemporary culture. Regularly exhibited at the Museum and also often lent to other museums around the world, the collection is unique in its focus and quality among the California State University system collections. Since its foundation as a collecting institution in 1973, when it was called University Art Museum, the Museum has worked with individuals, foundations, business, and governmental agencies to collect over 2,000 objects. 

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Art Park & Cal State Long Beach Outdoor Sculpture 

Situated throughout the Cal State Long Beach campus, the Art Park includes many historic works of art, including mosaics, murals, and outdoor sculpture. It is the Museum’s oldest collection and has grown to include several historic works. The original collection of nine sculptures began in 1965 with the California International Sculpture Symposium. Notably, this was the first event of its kind in the U.S. and the first ever to be held on a college campus. 

Spearheaded by former sculpture professor Kenn Glenn, the International Sculpture Symposium represents a significant multidisciplinary experiment through its integration of public art practice with innovative science and industrial technology and production. Each artist invited to participate in the Symposium was paired with an industrial sponsor that provided technological assistance in the form of expertise, access to facilities, equipment, and materials. Many of these collaborations inspired new industrial and artistic techniques. This landmark collection is incorporated into the campus masterplan designed by architect Edward A. Killingsworth. Since the Symposium, the collection has grown to over 20 works and constitutes an essential element in the Museum’s programmatic commitment to supporting innovative use of materials. Sculptures by Maren Hassinger, Robert Irwin, Nancy Holt, Maxine Stussy, and Michael Davis are among later acquisitions to the collection.

Gordon F. Hampton Collection  

Gordon F. Hampton (1912−1996) was a renowned Los Angeles antitrust attorney, an  art patron, philanthropist, and one of the original partners in the law firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, LLP. Hampton fostered his expansive interest in art as he traveled the world assembling a notable and distinctive collection of primarily Modern American painting. The collection was donated to the museum in 1999. 

This historically significant collection features 89 works by 43 artists. The Hampton Collection include works by Adolph Gottlieb, Gillian Ayers, Richard Diebenkorn, Nancy Graves, Ellsworth Kelly, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Emerson Woelffer, Al Held, Michael Goldberg, Adolph Gottlieb, and Milton Resnick.  A highlight of the collection are five exceptional paintings by Lee Krasner including What Beast Must I Adore (1961), Cornucopia (1958), Stretched Yellow (1955), Gothic Frieze (1950), and an untitled painting from 1938. 

Works on Paper Collection

In 1979, the Museum began to regularly acquire works on paper with modest acquisition funds augmented by university allocations, grants, and private donations. Many objects were purchased or gifted from the Centric series of exhibitions held at University Art Museum. These include works by Susan Rothenberg, David Levinthal, Lorna Simpson, Barbara Kasten, and Jim Dine among others from the nearly seventy Centric exhibitions hosted by the Museum to date. Other highlights include works by Patrick Wilson, Walton Ford, Kim Abeles, John Baldessari, Sam Francis, George Segal, John Altoon, Lita Albuquerque, and Pat Steir.

Within the works on paper collection are photographs by Graciela Iturbide, Eugenia Vargas, Edward Steichen, Sidney Felsen, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, Lucas Samaras, Eileen Cowin, Candida Höfer, Judy Fiskin, Joel Meyerowitz, Eva Rubinstein, Julius Schulman, Christina Nguyen, and Arthur Tress. 

Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Collection

An extensive and diverse body of paintings and drawings by visual artist and poet Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld are held by the Museum. Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld’s multi-disciplinary oeuvre spans stylistic genres while exploring intuitive, symbolic expressionism relative to her lived experience.  Alongside a collection of drawings, paintings, and mixed media works, the Museum holds a portion of Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld's archives, collected artworks by other artists, and editions of her literary works.