Support the Museum

Support UAMA Programs

UAMA EDUCATION

Education for students (elementary through graduate) through visits to UAMA galleries: First and foremost, UAMA is a vital visual and historical resource to students. Visits to UAMA are an integral part of students' class assignments and learning experiences.

There is no substitute for personally experiencing original art works: seeing them with one's own eyes and engaging in a visual dialogue that often leads to a verbal and emotional response.

Whether visiting as an individual or part of a self-guided or docent-led tour UAMA has immediate impact on the students' lives. Do you remember your first visit to a museum?

For some students this is a glimpse at a different culture, a different visual perspective or the start of a personal storyline. For others this is a major ah-HA experience - - - a recognition of a future life passion.

Learning experiences for interns, student workers and student volunteers:

UAMA has an active program that gives museum work experiences to student interns (undergraduate and graduate level), student workers and student volunteers. These experiences are very labor intensive for the staff members because it involves actively mentoring and supervising the students and planning the extent and character of the learning experience. As staff time allows these are win-win experiences with students contributing to exhibition research, program specifics and organizational support. UAMA has a track record of student interns, workers and volunteers who go on to careers in the museum field.

Lectures, panel discussions, artists' walks and art events:

Scheduled periodically throughout the year UAMA invites scholars, artists, and subject area experts to present programs for the enjoyment of the general public as well as students. Developed in association with current exhibitions, these programs expand upon the concepts of the exhibitions and often cover an associated topic in depth. Underwriting for these events often determine whether these enrichment events come to fruition.

Your support of UAMA EDUCATION encompasses all these areas.

UAMA EXHIBITIONS

UAMA's exhibitions range from the permanent, featuring the incomparable medieval Altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo and the Old Masters in the Kress Collection, to a spectrum of temporary exhibitions from traveling shows, thematic exhibitions from the collections to full blown, intensely curated shows that gathers art from a variety of outside sources that may take years to develop and execute. An exhibition may start with an intriguing idea but its success depends on intense research, countless phone calls, surmounting logistics puzzles, and piecing the tantalizing parts into a comprehensive whole. All this is expensive. Exhibition expenses include research expenses, art use fees, shipping, installation planning and construction, and signage development, as well as the design and printing of exhibition catalogs and informational pamphlets and advertising. Lastly, reception planning and coordination is necessary to celebrate the accomplishment and engage of the community.

UAMA COLLECTIONS

The essence of any museum is its collections.

UAMA is fortunate to have wonderful collections – actually the premier collections in Tucson. Each addition to the collections is thoughtfully considered as to its potential to fit into UAMA's mission and collection policy. With examples from the medieval to the contemporary, UAMA has been supported by generous benefactors that have contributed excellent art of various genres over the life of the Museum. These benefactors' contributions have ranged from single stellar works to whole collections of outstanding templar examples. This generosity has made UAMA an institution with collections that have the depth to support both our outstanding exhibition and education programs.

In addition to the gifts of artwork UAMA's donors have understood the financial commitment that is necessary to care for collections. Each artwork that UAMA collects includes a commitment to properly store, care for and track for perpetuity. That commitment requires daily care, proper storage, monitoring systems, databases, and occasionally restoration expenses. The collections are UAMA pride and joy. We must be constantly vigilant towards the objects' needs and care while at the same time celebrate the art and use it for the edification of the public.

Questions?

Please contact Christine Aguilar at 520.621.5676 or by e-mail to vca@email.arizona.edu if you would like to discuss giving opportunities.