The AU Museum is the largest university facility for exhibiting art in the DC area.

The Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center—which marks its 20th anniversary this fall—brings all the visual and performing arts programs at AU into one 130,000-square-foot space. Designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, the Katzen includes state-of-the-art instructional, exhibition, and performance spaces, along with the AU Museum. Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen made a gift to name the center, which houses much of their modern art collection.

Prior to the Katzen’s opening, the Watkins Gallery—which opened across campus in 1962—housed the art department and the collection named in 1945 for artist and AU educator C. Law Watkins. The Watkins collection seeded the AU Museum, which in 2018 received nearly 9,000 works from the famed Corcoran Legacy Collection—one of the largest free art distributions in US history.

Prior to the construction of Katzen Center, the plot of land nestled off Massachusetts Avenue and Ward Circle was home to Cassell Center. The recreation center was erected by the US Navy in 1943 for the newly-created WAVES branch (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) stationed on campus during World War II. Completed in January 1944, the building featured a swimming pool, bowling alley, gymnasium, auditorium, and darkroom. In 1946, when the navy left  campus, the facility was turned over to the university.

The center was originally named the Leonard Student Center in honor of Adna Wright Leonard, Methodist bishop for Washington and chair of the AU Board of Trustees from 1941 to 1943, who died in a plane crash in 1943. In 1975, the Board of Trustees changed the name to Cassell Center, after Stafford H. “Pop” Cassell, CAS/BA ’36, and former star athlete who worked at AU for nearly 30 years as a coach, athletic director, and vice president for university relations.

Cassell Center housed many of AU’s athletic facilities, the Department of Physical Education, the Office of Personnel Services, and the University Publication and Printing Office. It was demolished in the early aughts to make way for the Katzen.

Prior to AU’s ownership of the land, Fort Gaines stood on the parcel.