From the Director

Crossing a Milestone

This article first appeared in the January–February 2008 issue of Insight, the Museum’s bimonthly magazine.

As I write, the process of creating a dramatically transformed Museum of Art has crossed another milestone: at a small ceremony of construction crew, a few University folks, and a few UMMA benefactors and volunteers, the last piece of structural steel for our new construction was hoisted into place on November 30. We followed a time-honored tradition in which the last beam had been painted white so that we could sign it, an evergreen tree had been secured to its center point, and U.S. and U-M flags had been installed on either end. It was a cold and windy morning, and yet the group was happy to huddle in the chill to see this moment.

Following the topping out, I was able to go into the construction site to see the progress of recent weeks, and for the first time stood in the future Asian galleries, the future African gallery, the future administrative offices—such was the progress of just the previous two weeks of construction. During that time, the temporary braces holding up the building’s cantilevers (as long as 160 feet, the very elements that allow for the building’s visual transparency and drama) were removed—allowing the geometry of the building to begin to sing. With each step on this journey, what began as a long-held aspiration for a better facility is more and more becoming a set of dynamic spaces that we can see with more than the mind’s eye. Volumes take shape, finishes become real—most notably the building’s cladding of a richly variegated but subtly beautiful Wisconsin limestone. I don’t think it was merely the chill of the day that gave me chills—it was the increasing reality of a dream, a once-in-a-generation opportunity, that has come about because of the belief and support of so many of you.

I have often remarked in planning this expansion and seeking the funds that are making it possible that while we have wished to create in this expansion a thing of beauty, the new wing is itself primarily a vessel, a container to be filled with art, learning, discovery, and people. Those of us who think deeply about architecture understand that a building can be a thing of beauty that challenges and pleases the eye even as it shapes the behaviors and experiences that will take place within it. Experiencing the building’s forms, its galleries, auditorium, and classrooms as they take three-dimensional shape allows me to more distinctly envision the experiences to come—the way in which the visitor’s eyes will sweep around and through the Vertical Gallery, discovering new vistas and new masterworks of art as they move through the space or go upstairs or down; how visitors will experience the perfect sightlines of the new, gently raked auditorium; how café users will be gently embraced by the truly elegant new courtyard that itself embraces historic Tappan Hall. Such observations are equally true of the restored Alumni Memorial Hall—the results of bringing natural light into the Apse for the first time in half a century, and restoring the cove ceilings and laylighting to the future Taubman Gallery for temporary exhibitions (formerly known as the West Gallery), are breathtaking and have exceeded my already high expectations.

I’ve never been in doubt that the building we’ve been preparing with Brad Cloepfil and his team at Allied Works Architecture will be a special building—but then I’m scarcely an impartial observer. I’m more and more persuaded that the container we’re building will truly shift the energy of our Central Campus in wonderful directions. It’s all the more gratifying to have this validated not only by the progress of the building itself, but by the people making the building. One of our construction managers told me how evident it is to him that the construction crew understands how special the project is—not necessarily because it’s a museum, but because they know they’re making something special, an unusually distinguished piece of architecture. The crews on the site—of which there are many, with 20-some subcontractors working on the building—have evidently cohered in ways that are rare in modern-day construction, and that no doubt will help to assure an outcome of unusually high quality.

As you will discover, our distinguished alumnus Arthur Miller features prominently in this issue of Insight. Although I had the great fortune to meet Mr. Miller on more than one occasion, I never asked what the University’s art collections might have meant to him in his student days or what he thought of the Museum’s evolution across his return visits of the following decades. But what tempts me now is to consider the future: what future geniuses in the arts—or in any discipline for that matter—will be stimulated to greater heights of achievement by this new Museum arising before us? Surely that is one of the core promises of this project—and justification for the faith placed in it by so many.

James Christen Steward
Director

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