The people behind the newly refurbished University of Michigan Museum of Art weren't trying to make a better art museum as much as they were trying to make a better Diag.

They wanted to turn the Museum of Art into an indoor version of the Diag where students, staff and community members would gather, interact. In essence the new facility would serve as a gateway to the university.

"Philosophically, we were thinking how can me make the art museum a more essential part of the university and the community," says James Steward, director of the U-M Museum of Art.

The new Museum of Art is also much bigger, functional and fancier now that the university has poured $41.9 million into it. It's bigger because the old version was 41,000 square feet and the new version is 94,000 square feet.

Functional because its Alumni Memorial Hall, designed by Allied Works Architecture, includes room for displays, research, exhibitions, educational programs, classrooms, a cafe and a 225-seat auditorium. Fancier because all of this lets the university display the museum’s 150-year-old collection of art (18,000 pieces) capable of making an eyebrow go high while still serving as a hub for the local arts community.

The opening also returns one of the campus' high-traffic corners back to normal. The Museum of Art is located at the corner of State and South University streets. Most students walking from the South and West quads have trekked past the construction at the Museum of Art for years now. No longer now that the construction cranes and cement trucks have moved to another corner of campus.

Source: James Steward, director of the University of Michigan Museum of Art
Writer: Jon Zemke