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Brigham Young University
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“The Museum of Art is a place where the heart and mind are brought together to seek knowledge and values, self affirmation and spiritual understanding.”

“We hope your experience in the Museum will nurture a more reflective mind, a capacity for deeper inquiry, a stronger commitment to excellence and integrity, and heightened appreciation for others and their ideas.”

One of the largest and best attended art museums in the Mountain West, the Museum of Art offers a dynamic exhibition schedule that includes displays of its permanent collection, world-class traveling shows and unique temporary exhibitions that fulfill the Museum unique mandate (above).

One of the Museum of Art's most important roles is its contribution to the academic mission of Brigham Young University. From the research and study of the artworks in our collection, to the teaching and learning that occurs in our classrooms and galleries, the Museum plays an important role in the academic pursuits of many students at BYU. At the same time, the Museum connects to broad community audiences through its varied exhibitions and educational programming.

A University Museum


The Museum's contribution to its university campus is expressed formally in its employment of approximately 85 students, more than half of whom are employed in some form of the pre-professional training. The Museum also supports about 12 interns at any time who obtain class credit for their work in the Museum. The University's Masters degree in Art History and Curatorship occurs by a formal collaboration between the Museum and the Art History area of the University with Museum personnel teaching many courses and supervising research theses.

Audiences


Since opening in October 1993, the Museum of Art has quickly become one of the premier university art museums in the North America. In a 2004 survey of more than 150 member museums of the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Museum of Art ranked first in attendance among university campus art museums with 334,774 visitors. Annual BYU student visitation to the Museum of Art for the same period was 80,569 also the highest among university art museums. When compared to all art museums, the Museum of Art ranks 31st in attendance out of 157 member art museums from Canada to Mexico.

Collections


The Museum of Art's permanent collection of more than 16,500 objects has a special emphasis on American and religious art. The American art collection is comprised of painting, photography, prints and sculpture from the late 18th century to the present and includes significant collections of Hudson River School landscape paintings and works of American impressionism. The Museum's American art collection has particularly large holdings of works by J. Alden Weir, Mahonri Young and Maynard Dixon. The Museum's growing collection of narrative and conceptual Christian art includes painting, prints and sculpture from the 15th century to the present that inspire reflection and enrich spiritual understanding. The collection includes introspective and thought-provoking works by Rembrandt, Albrecht Dürer, Carl Bloch, Sir Edward John Poynter, John Rogers Herbert, Minerva Teichert, Brian Kershisnik and Ron Richmond.

Exhibitions

In addition to numerous exhibitions of works from the permanent collection, the Museum shows world-class traveling exhibitions from significant lenders from across the world. The Museum has hosted exhibitions from the Vatican (The Etruscans: Legacy of a Lost Civilization), the People's Republic of China (Imperial Tombs of China), the Israel Antiquities Authority (Masada and the Dead Sea Scrolls), the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Lure of the West: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum), The Khalili Collection, London (Empire of the Sultans), and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Art of the Ancient Mediterranean World: Egypt, Greece, Rome).

The Museum also mounts significant exhibitions based on research conducted by Museum staff. "Thoroughly Modern: The 'New Women' Art Students of Robert Henri," is a recent Museum of Art exhibition that has generated national discussion about the role of women artists in the modernist movement of the early 20th century. Museum staff worked with 50 lenders from across the United States to bring together more than 100 artworks for this first exhibition of Henri's women students.





Architecture

The Brigham Young University Museum of Art is a four-story, modern facility of more than 102,000 square feet in size and is designed to preserve and safeguard the Museum's extensive permanent collection and to display a diverse range of exhibitions for the BYU campus population, surrounding schools and community at large.

The Museum of Art was designed by Los Angeles architect James Langenheim. Former directors of lighting and design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, LeMar Terry and Stuart Silver, assisted in determining the sophisticated lighting requirements and the best functional use of space. Prominent personnel from such associations as the Smithsonian Institution, the Getty Museum, and the National Gallery of Art also contributed to the design and planning of the building.

These designers' objectives were to construct an art museum that not only exhibited art but was itself a work of art. The building's articulated triangular shape provides a constant change in size, direction, form and light. The Museum of Art is built on four levels and includes ten exhibition galleries, auditorium, classrooms, small theater, print study room, gift store, security and administrative offices. The lower levels house state-of-the-art design, fabrication, imaging, registration, and storage areas. The Museum Café overlooks a beautiful sculpture garden.

Last modified: March 18, 2009 Maintained by CFAC Webmasters.

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