The mission of the Ellen Noël Art Museum is to connect people with art by providing access to art of enduring quality for the culturally diverse audience of our more than 100,000-square-mile region. The Museum engages our community through changing exhibitions with a cross-cultural focus, and through the growth of the permanent collection. The Museum serves as a catalyst for art education in the region by collaborating with schools, colleges, and universities and by providing child and adult art classes, artist workshops and family activities. The Museum believes that every person, regardless of age and abilities, should have access to cultural enrichment through exposure to fine art and through a comprehensive art education program

The Ellen Noël Art Museum completed the enlargement and renovation of the George and Milly Rhodus Sculpture and Sensory Garden in the fall of 1998. The sensory garden was planted in raised beds, and the garden was made completely accessible and "user friendly" to visually and physically challenged visitors through design consultation with the Texas Commission for the Blind, the County Extension Service, and Permian Basin Master Gardeners. The garden provides badly needed cultural enrichment and recreational activity for the visually impaired, whose special requirements have been low priority in West Texas even though Texas Commission for the Blind 1998 figures indicate 11,000 visually impaired residents in the Permian Basin region. It also provides a shady, protected location for their rest and enjoyment.

This exhibition and programming are organized to engage the citizens of Ector County, with a special focus on the interests and heritage of the residents of South Odessa. Our intention is to develop an understanding of the influence of Spanish Colonial art and foster an appreciation of its presence in the everyday lives of people living in this region.

The opportunity to participate in educational outreach programming will be extended to five South side elementary schools. This program will offer students who visit the Museum an opportunity to have an enhanced art experience, not ordinarily accessible in the classroom. The program will address the National Standards for visual arts by emphasizing historical and cultural heritage in relation to the arts and in the students’ own artworks. School groups will perform an intensive study of the artwork, led by museum staff, and will participate in a related classroom art activity.

Other upcoming exhibitions include British paintings from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer collection, an English Beading exhibition, and the work of Lubbock, Texas sculptor Steve Teeters.

The Museum is available for parties, weddings, meetings, and workshops.

The Ellen Noël Art Museum is the only art museum within 100,000 miles of the vast area of West Texas known as the Permian Basin. The Museum's dedicated staff and Board of Trustees are proud to offer the public three galleries, a children's art room, a classroom, and an outdoor sensory and sculpture garden. The George and Milly Rhodus Sculpture and Sensory Garden is designed so that visitors with vision impairment and other special needs can enjoy a museum experience, but it is a sensory oasis for all. The Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums and is an Affiliate Museum of the Smithsonian Institute. Admission is free. Our mission is to connect people with art by offering changing and unique exhibtions of art of enduring quality, and informative and fun art classes for all ages, lectures, and community art days.

Opened in 1985 as the Art Institute of the Permian Basin, The Ellen Noël Art Museum of the Permian Basin is the culmination of years of grass roots fundraising efforts by Odessans to build a fine arts museum. The Museum was renamed in its tenth year to honor the leadership and philanthropy of Mrs. Ellen W. Noël. With its expansion in 1998, the Ellen Noël Art Museum now features 22,120 square feet of gallery and office space, including a storage wing for the growing permanent collection. Its state-of the- art climate control system creates an excellent environment for the many changing art exhibitions each year.