ERIC M. JUKELEVICS

Kevin Gilliam, exhibit specialist senior, stands in one of two storage areas in the UA Museum of Art yesterday. The museum has two storage facilities filled with art that does not fit in the museum.

Wednesday September 5, 2001

Space constraints and maintenance problems hasten UA Museum of Art's efforts for a new, bigger facility

Increasingly troubled by structural and maintenance problems, as well as hindered by limited exhibition space for a growing collection, the UA Museum of Art has undertaken plans to construct a new, more spacious facility.

Located in the Fine Arts Complex, the current exhibition space measures only 40,000 square feet - an insufficient amount to store and display the museum's 5,000-piece collection, including its renowned Kress collection.

Moreover, as the 50-year-old facility ages, wear and tear deteriorates the quality of the exhibition space, and water leaks threaten to damage the hanging artwork - making the need for a new building all the more imperative.

Making do with temporary solutions to worsening problems, the museum's executive director Charles Guerin and his staff are working to rebuild and revitalize the museum.

'Filled to capacity'

When artist Gu Wanda's calligraphic work was exhibited at the United Nations, the entire piece measured 80 feet in length.

When that same work made its way to the University of Arizona Museum of Art for its current exhibition, "Power of the Word," there seemed to be a few letters missing.

"They had to chop the show when it came in," said Kris Wagman, security officer at the museum. "They couldn't display it all - about 30 percent had to be truncated."

This recent development is only a small part of the frustrations museum staff have endured due to the museum's cramped facility, as a large majority of its collection remains in storage and unseen by the public.

"We have probably one of the best collections in the Southwest, thanks to wonderful benefactors, and we don't have nearly the room to display it," Wagman said. "We've got Rembrandts - granted they are only etchings - but we can't put them out. We've got a storage room full of sculpture and we can't put it out."

Part of the space problem stems from a stipulation made by the Kress Foundation that the 60 works in its collection must be on display year-round. The foundation donated its world-renowned collection of "Old Masters" - European paintings created between the 14th and 19th centuries - to the museum in the 1950s. This endowment made the current facility a necessity.

The collection includes a 26-panel Retablo of the Cathedral of the Ciudad Rodrigo, created by the 15th century Spanish Master Fernando Gallego.

"The Retablo is one work of art, and it occupies a quarter of the museum," Guerin said. "Due to our limited space, we have very little space to do changing exhibitions."

Alisa Shorr, the museum's public relations director, also said that displaying the Retablo has caused frustration from cramped gallery spaces.

"We have been working for almost a year and a half to figure out how to display the Retablo effectively in the limited space - it is huge," she said.

And the problem will only get worse. As the museum's collection of artwork grows with each passing year, so too does its space problems.

"Right now, we can't buy anything," Guerin said. "We can, but the things that we buy, we have difficulty storing them."

The museum has been forced due to these constraints to start using gallery space for storage.

"Our storage spaces are filled to capacity. Our ability to safely store things is limited. We've had to close off part of the galleries to make storage space," said registrar Richard Schaffer. "If we get 3 or 4 percent on the walls, we're lucky."

Keith McElroy, associate professor of art history, said museum-goers may not notice the adjustments that museum staff has had to make due to limited space, because the problem is most evident behind the scenes at the museum.

ERIC M. JUKELEVICS

Sculptures and other pieces of artwork collect dust in one of the UA Museum of Art's two storage facilities. Due to limited exhibition space, the museum is unable to display all of its artwork - a problem it hopes to solve with a new, more spacious facility.

"Where it shows the most is where the public never sees it, in terms of the working spaces for not only storage, which is quite inadequate, but particularly for staffing operations and conservation and exhibition design," he said.

McElroy likens the situation at the museum to the similar problem of the Center for Creative Photography.

"It is similar to the way the Center for Creative Photography was before they got a new building," McElroy said. "They were just crammed into a space that was just not adequate to the setting."

Other UA arts organizations are currently suffering the same problems as the museum. The UA Poetry Center is currently in the planning stages to construct its own new facility so that it may house its vast collection.

And it's not just an abundance of paintings that are causing these problems. At times, the facility is not able to handle the number of people who want to visit the museum.

"We're limited by the fire code as to the amount of people we're allowed in the building at a time," Wagman said. "And yet there have been some shows, like when we did the Rodin show, we had a 1,000 people an hour trying to come into the museum, by actual physical count. We had lines outside, and people couldn't move in here."

She further recounted when the museum held a reception for the premiere of "Buffalo Soldier" at Gallagher Theatre.

"We couldn't get everybody in the building because it was against the fire code," she said. "It's (the facility) just real, real small. It makes jobs of security difficult."

'A lousy building'

In addition to all its space problems, the museum building itself is deteriorating from age.

Erected in 1955, the aging facility has ongoing maintenance problems that staffers have had to work around. As the building settles, museum floors have buckled in spots and walls are cracked - though blemishes have largely been covered following a recent refurbishment of the gallery space.

"It's a fine museum. It's just a lousy building," Guerin said.

The most pressing problem, though, has been water damage incurred by the museum from leaks originating in art studios on the floor above the gallery space - the museum is housed in the same building as classrooms for the art department.

Water from the studios' overflowing sinks seeps into the gallery from low spots in the ceiling - where the track lighting is fitted, for instance - dripping on the wall space near valuable works of art.

"On a number of occasions, we've had leaks from their studios," Schaffer said. "We've been lucky in the sense that we've been around and seen it happening."

But he added that damage to the artwork has occurred.

"Once piece was damaged and could not be repaired," he said.

UA Risk Management, on request of the museum, laid a vinyl covering on the floor of the studios to stop the leaking, but seepage out into adjoining hallways continues to cause problems.

'A wonderful afternoon'

With all these problems, museum staffers said they feel a new facility is the only solution.

A new 100,000 square foot facility - estimated to cost $30 million - will relieve the museum of its continuing space constraints and maintenance problems.

"It would take that amount of space to properly exhibit our collections, to provide enough gallery space for changing exhibitions, to provide the storage areas necessary areas for the collection as it is and for the growth of the collection," Guerin said. "If you consider this building has been here 50 years, we need to create a new building that has the potential storage capacity for at least another 50 years."

Guerin is heading the fundraising effort - now in its seventh month - to launch the new building. He said the museum is currently in the "silent phase," in which he is talking with prominent donors both locally and nationally.

"We're looking for a naming opportunity - someone who will give a substantial amount of money for the museum to be named for them or for someone they want the museum named after," he said.

Guerin was appointed executive director in the spring partly for his experience in similar projects like this at other places around the country. Before coming to UA, he directed the development and construction of the University of Wyoming Museum of Art, a project that took nine years to complete.

Guerin sees a similar timeline for the UA museum's new facility - estimating seven years to complete fundraising efforts, followed by two years of construction. The museum's new located will be a property just north of Park Avenue Garage, Guerin said.

When the new facility is finally completed, Guerin said he wants the UA Museum of Art to compare to other nationally renowned museums - whose appeals extend far beyond just being able to display their entire collections.

"In addition to their collections, they (museums) are places that service people, that create a destination for a wonderful afternoon. That's what we're trying to create here."