SOUTH BEND — The permanent exhibit at the South Bend Museum of Art was overhauled this spring to pay homage to the museum’s 75th anniversary. Organized by the decades, it includes a piece that was acquired in each of the museum’s 75 years.  

It will remain as it is at least for the next year. Then staff will evaluate whether to change it. 

Here are cool things to notice: 

• The first art: Six paintings by Hoosier artists in the front lobby were the first works that the museum acquired in 1948, all of them donated from the collections of local philanthropist E.M. Morris and his wife. They include pieces by William J. Forsyth, T.C. Steele, Daniel Garber, Jay Hall Cannaway and George Jo Mess, all of them Hoosiers.  

• Dali and Warhol: There’s a 1960 etching by Salvador Dali and a Campbell’s soup bag from 1966 by Andy Warhol. 

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• Main man: A colorful self portrait of one of the museum’s most influential figures, the late Harold Zisla, sits in one of Zisla’s easels, which is marked with some of his own cryptic commentary, some of it salty. Zisla was the fourth director of the originally named South Bend Art Association, which became the South Bend Art Center, serving from 1957 to 1966. He also was the first chairman of the fine arts department at IU South Bend. Nearby is a reflection by Zisla’s son, Paul, on the fire that claimed the former art center’s first home (a carriage house) in 1962.  

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• Paper airplane: On display, there’s a paper airplane that the museum has kept for several years. It had arrived as a signed petition to get the museum to pull out a piece by local artist Alan Larkin, which was in protective storage, and hang it publicly. That art piece is on display, too.  

• Susan Visser: The museum’s executive director for about 34 years, until last year, shares her recollections in an essay. 

• Sculptor and poet: Elkhart sculptor Jake Webster has a piece here made of wood, nails, rubber washers and fabric, but you can also scan a QR code to hear Webster recite a poem that accompanies the sculpture. 

• Old snaps: A display table in the front lobby shows an array of old photos and pamphlets.  

• Where: 120 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., South Bend 

• Hours: Noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays  

• For more information: Call 574-235-9102 or visit southbendart.org.