University of Michigan Museum of Art

The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) is one of the largest university art museums in the United States, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Housed in a building originally constructed as a Civil War memorial, the museum encompasses 94,000 square feet (8,700 m2) and holds a comprehensive collection of more than 20,000 works spanning cultures, eras, and media. Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $10. The museum serves as a major cultural institution within the University of Michigan, offering public access to collections that represent more than 150 years of collecting history.

The origins of the museum building date to 1864, when the idea of constructing a memorial for University of Michigan students, faculty, and alumni who died in the Civil War was first conceived. The project stalled for decades until 1904, when a committee of 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 land at the southwest corner of campus at South University Avenue and State Street. The Detroit architecture firm Donaldson and Meier was awarded the project in 1905 for $175,000. Construction began in June 1908, and Alumni Memorial Hall was dedicated on May 11, 1910, at a final cost of $190,000. The university contributed one quarter of the construction costs, with the remainder coming from the Alumni Association and individual donors.

The building was designed from the outset to accommodate exhibitions, and it initially housed both the Alumni Association headquarters and portions of the university's art collection, which had previously been kept in the university library. In 1946, the entire building was transferred to the museum, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art was officially founded, with Jean Paul Slusser serving as acting director and becoming director in 1947 until his retirement in 1957. The museum's founding in 1946 was specifically intended to create a dedicated space for the university's growing art collection.

A major turning point came in the spring of 2009, when the museum reopened after a $41.9 million expansion and renovation designed by Brad Cloepfil and Allied Works Architecture. This project more than doubled the museum's size, adding the 53,000 square foot (4,900 m2) Maxine and Stuart Frankel and the Frankel Family Wing to the renovated 41,000 square foot (3,800 m2) Alumni Memorial Hall. Christina Olsen was appointed director in 2017.

The museum's collections are among the oldest university-held art collections in the United States, with public access to a campus art gallery dating back to 1856. Today the collections comprise more than 20,000 objects representing Western, Asian, and African traditions alongside modern and contemporary art.

The Asian art collection numbers more than 6,000 objects ranging from the third millennium B.C. to the present, representing cultures from Afghanistan to Java and Japan. It ranks among the largest in Michigan, with particular strengths in Chinese and Japanese painting, Chinese and Korean ceramics, Indian religious sculpture and miniature painting, and Southeast Asian Buddhist sculpture. The Chinese painting collection alone contains more than 200 works representing major artistic movements from the thirteenth century to the modern period, with notable depth in Ming courtly and literati painting. The museum also holds nearly 400 Chinese ceramics from the Neolithic period through the twentieth century, with particular richness in Han dynasty pieces.

The African art collection encompasses more than than 1,000 works, with particular depth in Central African materials, especially from the Congo region and related groups. The collection includes metalwork such as brass weights and jewelry, sculpture and masks, architectural elements, textiles, and ceramics.

European holdings span from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century, while American art is particularly strong in nineteenth-century works. The museum also maintains active programs in provenance research, including the University of Michigan Provenance Research Project, a multi-year initiative to investigate objects in the collections that were made or traded in continental Europe before 1946 and acquired by the university after 1932, with particular attention to identifying works that may have been unlawfully obtained during the Nazi era. A three-year investigation concluded in 2007 found no evidence of Nazi-looted artwork in the collection.

The permanent collection includes significant works by James McNeill Whistler, Franz Kline, Helen Frankenthaler, Pablo Picasso, Joshua Reynolds, Claude Monet, Max Beckmann, Walker Evans, Randolph Rogers, Kara Walker, Alvin D. Loving, Christian Boltanski, Donald Sultan, Jenny Holzer, Tracey Emin, Louise Nevelson, Yinka Shonibare, Romare Bearden, Michele Oka Doner, Hiram Powers, Mark di Suvero, Tiffany and Company, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Toyokuni I, Shigeo Fukuda, Alexander Calder, Marian Spore Bush, and Grace Hartigan, among many others.

The museum's outdoor sculpture program has featured several prominent works. Mark di Suvero's sculpture Orion was installed in front of the building from 2008 to 2018, was briefly removed for conservation, and was reinstalled permanently in 2019. The kinetic sculpture Shang was on long-term loan to the university and stood outside the building from 2008 to 2020, when it was purchased by a private collector. In November 2020, Jaume Plensa's Behind the Walls was installed in its place. Other outdoor sculptures include Daedalus by Charles Ginnever, Ternary Marker by Beverly Pepper, Stiff Box No. 12 by Lucas Samaras, Requiem by Erwin Binder, and three works by Michele Oka Doner.

Temporary exhibitions have presented work by Meleko Mokgosi, Mari Katayama, Ceal Floyer, Paul Rand, and others.

Alumni Memorial Hall, the museum's original building, was constructed in the Beaux-Arts style, an American variant of Neoclassicism. The main entrance faces west and is marked by a monumental portal supported by corner piers and two unfluted double columns. The building measures 35 meters wide and 46 meters deep, with two above-ground stories and a full basement. The masonry structure is completely clad in ashlar facade plates, with a total usable area of approximately 3,800 square meters.

The original design featured a pair of stone columns flanking the main bronze doors, with two smaller side doors. The interior continues to house bronze memorial plaques bearing the names of fallen alumni from the American Civil War (1861-1865), the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and the Spanish-American War (1898). The building also originally housed the University Club before that organization moved to the Union across the street.

The 2006-2009 renovation and expansion by Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture fundamentally restored the historic building and added the new wing, increasing the museum's total size to 94,000 square feet.

The University of Michigan Museum of Art is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the University of Michigan campus at the southwest corner of South University Avenue and State Street. The museum is owned by the University of Michigan and operates as a public institution with free admission, though a $10 donation is suggested. The museum's website is http://www.umma.umich.edu/.

As a university museum, UMMA serves both the academic community and the general public, functioning as a teaching museum and research institution while maintaining full public access to its collections and exhibitions. The museum's current director is Christina Olsen, appointed in 2017, who leads an institution that has grown from a memorial building housing a modest collection to one of the largest university art museums in the country.