For more than 25 years Neumeyer acquired prints that now comprise one of the Gallery's most distinguished collections. Although Mills College students have access to the collections through their classes, the Museum's permanent collection cannot be left on permanent view because of its sheer size. A primary mission has always been to share its resources as widely as possible. Each season works from the Museum's permanent collection are show along with the regular season's program. The Museum has approximately 6000 square feet and hosts exhibitions of contemporary work from nationally and internationally known artists from September through May. Exhibitions of historical importance as well as the annual Mills College Senior and M.F.A. Exhibitions are also featured.
All exhibitions are free and open to the public.
The Museum has collected and shown works in this medium since the 1930s. The Mills College Ceramics Guild, which became an important experimental base for artists like Peter Voulkos and Robert Arneson, was founded in 1940. Since then, notable instructors have included F. Carlton Ball, Antonio Prieto, and, since 1978, Ron Nagle. Prieto amassed a personal collection of extraordinary breadth, including works by Henry Varnum Poor, Marguerite Wildehhain, Peter Voulkos, Robert Arneson, and Viola Frey. After his death, artists further contributed to a memorial collection, bringing the total to over 400 works, primarily from Northern California, but also from England, Japan and elsewhere in the United States.