The University of Michigan Museum of Art, or UMMA in Ann Arbor, Michigan with 94,000 sq ft (8,700 m2) is one of the largest university art museums in the USA. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall originally housed U-M's Alumni office along with the university's growing art collection.
UMMA contains a comprehensive collection that represents more than 150 years at the university, with nearly 19,000 works of art that span cultures, eras, and media. The museum's displays works by James McNeill Whistler, Franz Kline, Helen Frankenthaler, Pablo Picasso, Joshua Reynolds, Claude Monet, Max Beckmann, Walker Evans, Randolph Rogers, and Kara Walker, among many others.
In the spring of 2009, the museum reopened after a major $41.9 million expansion and renovation designed by Brad Cloepfil and Allied Works Architecture, which more than doubled the size of the museum. The museum comprises the renovated Alumni Memorial Hall with 41,000 sq ft (3,800 m2) and the new 53,000 sq ft (4,900 m2) Maxine and Stuart Frankel and the Frankel Family Wing. The museum's current director is Joseph Rosa, who was appointed in 2010.
Construction
New Exhibition at University of Michigan Museum of Art - Carole McNamara, senior curator at University of Michigan Museum of Art talks about the upcoming exhibition.
Alumni Memorial Hall was originally conceived in 1864 as a way to honor the University of Michigan students, faculty, and alumni who had died fighting in the Civil War. However, the project was put on hold until 1904, when a committee of Michigan alumni and professors, led by Professor Martin Luther D'Ooge and Judge Claudius B. Grant, secured a promissory note from the Board of Regents for the land the hall would eventually be built on.
With the land set aside, the Board of Regents created a committee to work in parallel with the Alumni Memorial Committee in 1905, and by the end of the year had awarded the project to the Detroit architecture firm Donaldson and Meier at the cost of $175,000. The hall's cornerstone was laid by Judge Grant and construction began in June 1908. Alumni Memorial Hall was dedicated on May 11, 1910, with a final building cost of $190,000.
The hall itself was built in the neoclassical tradition with a pair of two stone columns flanking the hall's main bronze doors with two smaller side doors. The inside continues to house the Alumni Association's headquarters and the university's vast art collection alongside pieces donated by alumni, including a bust of the university's first president Henry Philip Tappan. It also housed the University Club, before the club moved across the street to the Union.
Michigan During the Civil War
Michigan Soldiers in the Civil War
Michigan in the American Civil War
Gallery
See also
- Cranbrook Art Museum
- Detroit Institute of Arts
- Museums at the University of Michigan
- Tourism in metropolitan Detroit
References
External links
Media related to University of Michigan Museum of Art at Wikimedia Commons
- Official University of Michigan Museum of Art website
