Brigham Young University Museum of Art

Brigham Young University Museum of Art
Eustress · Public domain · source
Name	Brigham Young University Museum of Art
Established	1993
Location	Provo, Utah, United States
Type	Art museum
Director	(see Management and Governance)
Website	(official site)

Brigham Young University Museum of Art The Brigham Young University Museum of Art is an art museum located on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, housing permanent collections and rotating exhibitions that engage scholarship, faith, and visual culture. The museum connects university programs, regional communities, and international artists through exhibitions, acquisitions, and educational outreach, and collaborates with institutions to present historical and contemporary works. Major loans, traveling shows, and interdisciplinary projects have linked the museum to leading museums and cultural organizations across the United States and abroad.

History

The museum opened in the early 1990s following fundraising and planning that involved Brigham Young University, local donors, and national consultants from institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Getty Trust, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Early exhibitions and acquisitions drew on donations and loans from collectors associated with Yale University, Harvard University, Princeton University, Columbia University, Stanford University, and the University of California system, while curatorial exchanges involved staff from the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art. Over time the museum has staged exhibitions tied to artists and figures represented in collections and scholarship, including works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco Goya, Édouard Manet, Diego Rivera, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Gustav Klimt, Edvard Munch, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Yoko Ono, James Turrell, Dale Chihuly, and Kehinde Wiley. Collaborative loans and provenance research have engaged archives and museums such as the British Museum, the Louvre, the Rijksmuseum, the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Uffizi Galleries, the Hermitage Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Walker Art Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Norton Simon Museum.

Collections and Exhibitions

The museum's permanent holdings encompass European painting, American art, photography, decorative arts, and contemporary sculpture, with objects that have been compared alongside works in collections at the National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Hammer Museum, and the American Folk Art Museum. Exhibition programming has featured thematic surveys, retrospectives, and focused installations that reference scholarship on artists and movements from the Renaissance to Contemporary Art critics associated with institutions like the Courtauld Institute, the Clark Art Institute, and the Morgan Library & Museum. Rotating exhibitions have included presentations on religious art, landscape painting, portraiture, modernism, postmodernism, abstraction, and installation art, drawing curators and guest scholars from Yale Center for British Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, the Reina Sofía Museum, the Centre Pompidou, the Stedelijk Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Hammer. The museum has hosted traveling exhibitions developed by organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Alliance of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Curators, and academic partners including the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Duke University, and Brown University.

Architecture and Facilities

The museum building, sited on the campus designed by architects who consulted with firms experienced in museum planning such as I. M. Pei & Partners, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Ricardo Legorreta, contains climate-controlled galleries, study centers, conservation laboratories, and teaching spaces comparable to facilities at the Frick Collection, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Morgan Library. The design incorporates gallery lighting and environmental systems meeting standards advocated by the American Institute for Conservation, while gallery layout and circulation reflect principles used by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Tate Modern. Accessible spaces, a museum shop, and a sculpture garden enable programming akin to that of the High Museum of Art, the Kimbell Art Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Chrysler Museum of Art. The building's siting on university grounds situates it near campus landmarks and institutions including the Harold B. Lee Library, the Joseph Smith Building, the Wilkinson Student Center, and regional cultural venues like the Utah Museum of Fine Arts and the Springville Museum of Art.

Education and Public Programs

Educational initiatives link the museum with academic departments and professional schools at Brigham Young University and with external partners such as the National Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Getty Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and research libraries at Oxford University, Cambridge University, and the Library of Congress. Programs include docent-led tours, K–12 outreach, college curricula integration, curatorial fellowships, conservation internships, artist talks, symposia, and workshops that have brought speakers affiliated with the Cooper Hewitt, the Pratt Institute, the Rhode Island School of Design, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Royal Academy of Arts. Student engagement projects coordinate with study abroad programs, the J. Reuben Clark Law School, the College of Fine Arts and Communications, the Department of Art History, and community partners including the Provo City Arts Council and the Utah Arts Festival.

Management and Governance

Museum governance involves university-appointed leadership, a board of advisors comprising donors, alumni, and regional cultural leaders, and administrative collaboration with university officers and academic deans. Curators and registrars work in concert with conservation scientists, exhibition designers, and collections managers who maintain professional standards found at peer institutions such as the Association of Art Museum Directors, the International Council of Museums, the Collections Trust, and the American Alliance of Museums. Funding derives from university support, philanthropic gifts, endowments, exhibition sponsorships, and grants provided by foundations like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and by corporate partners and individual benefactors with ties to regional cultural networks and national philanthropic organizations.

Visitor Information

The museum is open to the public and located within reach of regional transportation networks and lodging associated with Provo and Utah County, including access via Interstate 15 and proximity to the Salt Lake City International Airport and Amtrak service at Salt Lake City Station. Visitor services include guided tours, group reservations, accessibility accommodations, a museum shop, and event rental options comparable to those offered by the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Denver Art Museum, and the Milwaukee Art Museum. Admission policies, hours, and contact information are maintained on the museum's official channels and through university visitor services, while nearby cultural sites and educational attractions include the BYU campus, Mount Timpanogos, Utah Valley Convention Center, and regional heritage sites.

Category:Art museums in Utah Category:University museums in Utah Category:Brigham Young University