By
Shaun Clayton
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Guerin hopes a new building will bring attention to arts
Charles A. Guerin has a lot in common with a new UA student.
He is in a new situation, has a lot of plans for the future, and transferred from another college, the University of Wyoming, where he was the executive director of the campus art museum.
Guerin is not a student, though. He is the new director at the University of Arizona Museum of Art.
"It has really extraordinary stuff for a university art collection, from old masters all the way to new masters," Guerin said. "It was the strength of the collection that was the principal thing that drew me to this situation."
Yet the current facilities at the museum only allow for a small portion of the collection to be exhibited. Guerin said he plans to build a new art museum building on the campus that would allow for more of the museum's extensive collection to be viewed by the public.
"We have 4,500 works of art in the collection and we are full. We are absolutely full," Guerin said. "We only have 15,000 square feet of gallery space, so it's difficult to show more than 3 or 4 percent of our collection at one time. So the physical limitations are very dominant."
Guerin said he hopes that a new facility will not only provide enough space to show the art, but correct problems that the current museum presents.
"Right now, the museum is focused inward towards the campus. You're a block and a half away from parking. It's tough if you're in a wheelchair. You have to want to come over here," he said.
Guerin has a reputation for getting more museum space - he was able to get a 123,000-square-foot facility built for the University of Wyoming in 1993.
Guerin said that fears of having yet another area of the campus hindered by construction would be unnecessary.
"If this became a university priority, construction would be at least four or five years out, so by the time this building were to start, most of the Union would be done, the undergraduate center (Integrated Learning Center) would be done, most of those big projects would be done," he said.
Guerin takes over permanently for the late Peter Bermingham, who passed away in February of 1999. Bermingham's death left a large gap in the administration of the art museum, one that was temporarily filled by current assistant director by Lee Karpiscak.
"He was one of the most gregarious guys," Guerin said of Bermingham. "Everybody loved him. I think Peter's legacy is that he had an extraordinary eye. He would see five paintings by an artist and he would always pick the best one."
"I don't intend to fill his shoes," Guerin added. "I intend to come in and be the new guy and look at what the needs are and do what I think is best. No one can fill his shoes, you can never fill anybody's shoes of someone who passes on. You just come in and you do what is needed."
