Utah Museum of Fine Arts
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| The Utah Museum of Fine Arts | |
| Established | 1951 |
|---|---|
| Location | Marcia & John Price Museum Building, Salt Lake City, Utah |
| Director | David L. Dee |
| Website | UMFA's Official Website |
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is Utah's primary resource for culture and visual arts. It is located on the University of Utah's campus close to Rice-Eccles Stadium. Works of art are displayed on a rotating basis. It is a university and state art museum. Today the Utah Museum of Fine Arts allows the public opportunities to experience different cultures from its extensive art collections.
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[edit] Overview
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is accredited by The American Association of Museums.[1] It has a cafe and store located inside the building along with more than 20 galleries. Permanent art collections for the Utah Museum of Fine Arts include over 17,000 works of art. The different cultures represented include African, Oceanic and the New World, Asian, European, American, and the Ancient and Classical World.[2]
[edit] History
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts was created on the top floor of the Park Building in the early 1900s. This was the actual birth of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. The Museum began as a one-room gallery and there were only paintings by local artists at first. Over the next fifty years, the art department at the University of Utah received major art gifts from donors to remodel the small gallery into an actual museum. The University’s president, A. Ray Olpin, established the gallery as the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on May 6, 1951 after the renovations were finished. In 1967, the first professional director was hired. During this time, the Museum was growing rapidly which resulted in the building of a new one.
The Museum relocated in 1970, and its major goal was to focus on expanding its collections. The Annual Friends of the Art Museum Acquisition Fund was formed over time and was helpful with the expansion of the Museum’s collections and its ability to offer art and history education. The UMFA’s collection now encompasses 5,000 years of art. During the mid-1900s the collection was just around 800 objects. Recently, it has grown to over 17,000 art objects. This massive expansion required the building of another museum. In 1998, donors made the construction of a new 74,000 square-foot building possible. The UMFA opened in June 2001 and the following year, David L. Dee was made Executive Director.
Since the new relocation, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts has experienced major growth in all areas. In February 2005, the Utah State Legislature declared this museum as an official state institution. The Museum’s plays an important role as a center for art, culture, and education in the state of Utah. [3]
[edit] Events and Programs
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts offers family, adult and children's programs along with tours for visitors of all ages. Different activities include individually walking the gallaries, hands-on art projects, films, lectures, and informative guided tours. Family programs offer studio art activities every third Saturday. Adult programs include painting classes, lectures, and fine art film classes. Children's programs include special summer classes where kids can combine history with art making. There are also classes for parents and their children from ages 2-5 to learn how to paint and sculpt. [4]
[edit] Past Exhibitions
Exhibitions at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts generally change on a one to two month basis. Some examples of past collections from January 2007 until present include:
Suitcase Paintings: Small Scale Work by Abstract Expressionists (Jan. 19 - Mar. 29 2008) which included around sixty works of intense beauty that exhibited energy found in larger works.
Cinderella: Masks, Magic and Mirrors (Sept. 2 - Mar. 31 2008) which included materials from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. This exhibit explored key themes from Cinderella including the magical mirror.
Picturing the West: Masterworks of 19th Century Landscape Photography (Oct. 6 - Dec. 30 2007) included 32 nineteenth century American Western landscape photographs.
Andy Warhol's Dream America: Screenprints from the Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation (Oct. 4 - Jan. 6 2008)included around 100 screenprints by internationally acclaimed artist Andy Warhol.[5]
