PRESS RELEASE

August 27, 2002

Contact:
Katie Sproles, (541) 346-0942, ksproles@darkwing.uoregon.edu

Fact Sheet:
MUSEUM OF ART RENOVATION AND EXPANSION PROJECT

The University of Oregon Museum of Art (UOMA) is breaking ground on its $12.72 million renovation and expansion project this fall. When it is completed during winter 2004, the new UOMA will be twice as big as the current museum which is of one of six UO campus structures listed on the National Register for Historic Places.

Architects and General Contractor
The architect of record is SRG Partnership of Portland.

The design architect is Thomas Beeby of Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge in Chicago. Beeby carefully and sensitively considered the building’s campus location, its unique architectural design and its historic setting when creating the architectural plans.

University officials are in the process of awarding the contract to the apparent low bidder for the project, the Wildish Building Co. of Eugene.

Timeline
Construction on the project will begin during fall 2002. Once underway, it will take approximately 18 months to complete the building and reinstall the art in the new galleries. It is estimated that the new museum will open to the public in winter 2004.

During the construction phase, the museum staff will continue to raise funds for key items such as a compact art storage system, new computers, interactive kiosks, exhibition cases and furnishings.

Groundbreaking Ceremony
The UOMA will host a ceremonial groundbreaking at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept 10, at the Museum of Art, 1430 Johnson Lane on the UO campus.

Budget
The museum’s $12.72 million renovation and expansion project is partially supported by the State of Oregon, which awarded the project $6.36 million in state-serviced bonds. In order to receive these funds, the museum was required to raise an equal amount in private donations. Contributions from more than 750 individual donors were combined with gifts from 10 corporations, grants from four private foundations, bequests from four estates and a federal grant to meet this $6.36 million matching donations goal.

Why is the Renovation and Expansion Necessary?
Constructed during the Great Depression, the museum building was reduced to one-third of its originally designed size for economic reasons. By the time it was completed in 1932, the 32,000-square-foot building was already too small for the original collection of 3,000 works of art.

Throughout the years, space issues have increased exponentially. While the original building remained virtually unchanged, the collection it housed quadrupled to more than 12,500 works. The average number of visitors to the cramped museum grew to 40,000 to 50,000 people each year before the building closed in September 2000 to prepare for this project.

The outdated building also has critical deficiencies in collections storage, climate control and staff workspaces. It still has much of its original electrical wiring, humidity and temperature control system, and installation furnishings. No longer can the building keep pace with modern museum practices nor can it provide a safe environment for its visitors and art collections.

Increasingly aware of these problems, university leaders joined with museum board members and administrators in 1997 to launch the Museum Campaign for the renovation and expansion of the museum. After successfully meeting the $12.72 million campaign goal in the spring of 2002, the UOMA is moving forward with this long-awaited and much-anticipated project.

Project Scope
The renovation and expansion project will:

*Double the size of the museum to over 63,000 square feet
*Enlarge and enhance the gallery space to display the museum’s collection:

-American and Regional Art Gallery
-Changing Exhibitions Gallery
-Chinese Art Gallery
-Japanese Art Gallery
-Korean Art Gallery
-European Art & Curriculum Gallery
-Russian Art Gallery

*Inaugurate the Gordon Gilkey Research Center for prints, drawings and photographs and a curriculum gallery for students and scholars
*Introduce an educational suite, containing an interactive discovery gallery, studio and auditorium
*Launch a new café and enlarge the museum store
*Unveil a special events hall, which will be available for rent
*Transform the building’s infrastructure, which will provide ideal storage and display conditions for the museum’s collections and enable the museum to host major national and international traveling exhibitions
*Create a fully accessible museum that is Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)- compliant.

###