History

Art Blooms in the Desert

Having a university in Tucson was a significant departure for the small town in the West. Only ten years earlier, Wild West stories, such as Wyatt Earp and the famous “Shoot Out at the Ok Corral,” were dominating the Arizona landscape. When the University of Arizona began classes in the fall of 1891, the school took its first steps to ensuring that students would receive an education in art. A drawing class was offered to the 32 students braving the new university that first semester.

First Documented Exhibition

Jennie V. Cannon, an art enthusiast from California, curated the first-known art exhibition at the University of Arizona. The exhibition, which featured California and Arizona artists, was held at the library.

Student Art Exhibition

This exhibition was composed of work created by students during the fall semester of 1924. Totaling 135 paintings, the exhibition was a significant start for art appreciation on campus. It was arranged by a new but passionate professor named Katherine Kitt, who was hired originally as a home economics instructor during a period when art education classes were threatened on campus.

Interest in Art Spreads Across Campus

As the mid-1920s approached, an interest in art began to proliferate across the University of Arizona campus. An art club formed and more art classes became available to students. With support rising, Professor Katherine Kitt succeeded in forming the Department of Art in 1927. As the department’s first head, Kitt was a cheerleader for bringing art to more students and the Tucson community.

An Art Gallery on Campus (Under the Football Stadium)

In 1929, the Art Department moved under the university's Football Stadium, and art exhibitions moved along with it. It was in this unlikely space that the art department officially opened an “art gallery.” In 1931, the first exhibition was held in the gallery, which was run by the art department and continued to feature the work of students and former students.

A More Permanent Home: The Library

In 1933, a formal space was set aside in the campus library (the current Arizona State Museum building) for art exhibitions. During the first two years, the exhibitions were organized by the Tucson Fine Arts Association, an organization that would later become the Tucson Museum of Art. After 1935, exhibitions were continued by the Department of Art and the university’s Alpha Rho Tau art club.

A Stamp Collection Transforms the University

At the age of 43, Charles Leonard Pfeiffer asked for a leave of absence from his job in New York City to attend the University of Arizona as a student. Pfeiffer found himself on a campus that was exhibiting artwork in the library, but lacked a permanent collection for students to study. Looking for a way to provide access to original artwork, Pfeiffer and his friend, Bruce Mitchell, came up with a plan.

Pfeiffer sold his prized stamp collection, a hobby that had grown so large that the stamps had to be kept in a locked vault. With the money from the sale, Mitchell and others purchased over 100 works from artists working at the time, most for just $300-$400 apiece. The collection became the first major donation of artwork to the UA.

European Art Brings Record Crowds

In 1951, the Kress Foundation lent twenty-five pieces of European art to the University of Arizona. Opening during homecoming weekend in the campus library, the exhibition was a huge success. In the first weekend alone, over 2,000 people came to the library to view the masterpieces.

The aftermath was significant. The Kress family agreed to donate portions of the collection if the university could create a permanent space for the art on campus. Although it wasn’t known at the time, the construction of a building would begin just four years later.

A Letter Arrives from the Other Side of the Country

The next major donation to the UAMA started with a letter from a man on the other side of the country — Edward Joseph Gallagher, Jr., an architect from Baltimore. Gallagher, an artist and art collector, had come across an article in Life Magazine that mentioned the University’s Gallery of Art. The article talked about the Kress Foundation showing art in the University’s library, and it inspired Gallagher to look into donating art as well. Gallagher had visited Arizona over the years and fallen in love with the state. His collection was established as a memorial to his son, Edward Gallagher, III, who died in 1932 at the age of 13 in a tragic accident.

Breaking Ground on a Permanent Home

When the Kress Foundation lent twenty-five pieces of European art to the University of Arizona in 1951, it came with a promise. If the University would construct a building to house the art collection, the Kress Foundation would permanently donate some of the masterpieces that had been so popular. Just four years later, on August 3, 1955 the University President joined the Head of the Art Department, Andreas Anderson, in breaking ground for a Fine Arts Complex that would include an art gallery.

A Home

Less than a year after breaking ground, the University Gallery was ready for moving day. Staff packed and moved the artwork that was stored in the old campus library to its new home on Olive Road. At the time, the museum had over 250 paintings and hundreds of prints in its collection. The gallery official opened on October 27, 1956 in the UAMA's current location.

Stepping Out On Its Own

The University Gallery was making huge leaps forward by 1957. The Gallery had its own building on campus, a growing collection, and the Kress Foundation followed through on their promise to donate an impressive collection of art to the museum’s permanent collection. Up until this point, the collection and exhibitions had been cared for through the Department of Art. In 1957, the Gallery had grown to a point where the demands of overseeing the art and exhibitions meant that a separate administration was required. The first official director, Robert Church, was hired and a there was a formal break from the museum’s original caretakers, the Department of Art.

The Retablo

In 1960, the Kress Foundation made a second major donation to the UAMA, the Altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo. Also known as a retablo, the altarpiece was one of the most important works created in 15th-century Spain.

From Gallery to Museum

The name “gallery” was used for several years to identify the collection of art at the University of Arizona. In 1968, the name was officially changed to its current name, the University of Arizona Museum of Art. The same year, the building underwent a renovation that included additional gallery space and a remodeling of older galleries. In November of 1968 the UAMA held a reopening celebration to commemorate the new name and renovated building.

Ansel Adams Exhibition

From March 17 to April 30 in 1974, the University of Arizona Museum of Art hosted its second-ever photographic exhibition. Called Little Known Images, the exhibition featured 125 of Ansel Adams’s photographs, lent to the Museum by then seventy-two-year-old artist. The exhibition heralded the start of a significant partnership between Adams and the university. While in Tucson, Adams met then-University president Dr. John P. Schaefer, who followed their meeting with a visit to Adams’s home in Carmel, California. The two men worked closely together to outline plans for a new institution that would collect photographic archives and by spring of 1975, not much more than a year after Little Known Images opened to the Tucson public, the new Center for Creative Photography was announced with the Ansel Adams Archive as one of its founding collections.

Photo Caption: Nevada Fall, Rainbow, Yosemite Valley, 1946-1950. Photograph by Ansel Adams. Collection Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

Sculpting the Museum: The Lipchitz Collection

The UAMA continued to expand its holdings in a major way in 1979. That year, the museum accepted a large collection of works by Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973), an internationally-known sculptor with a long and distinguished career. The UAMA was chosen as the home for the materials partially because Yulla Lipchitz, Jacques’ wife, is said to have fallen in love with the Tucson area, particularly with the "rugged and mysterious beauty of the desert." The Jacques and Yulla Lipchitz Collection includes plasters and terra cotta models created by Lipchitz as well as a twelve-foot bronze sculpture that stands in front of the museum called Lesson of a Disaster. A permanent display of the Lipchitz collection is on view on the first floor of the museum.

A Professional Museum

Throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, the museum continued to grow and added an emphasis to professionally caring for the collections. Under the direction of Director Peter Bermingham, the museum took the steps to reach the highest standards of collections care. In December of 1981, the UAMA achieved recognition as an accredited museum by the American Association of Museums (today known as the American Alliance of Museums).

Theft

In the early morning of November 29, 1985, a man and woman entered the UAMA shortly after the museum opened. The couple proceeded upstairs and carefully cut Williem de Kooning’s Woman-Ochre from its frame. Wearing coats, the man and woman managed to hide the 30 x 40 inch painting under their clothing as they walked out of the building. The painting was recovered in 2017 by three honest men who returned it to its rightful home. Learn more about Woman-Ochre's incredible journey!

Expansion: Archive for Visual Arts Founded

In 2007, the UAMA took a step forward by adding an archival repository to its collections. The Archive of Visual Arts was founded as an academic research arm to the museum with the goal of collecting and making available the original papers of artists. It received its first major contribution from Robert McCall, an internationally-known space artist and illustrator. His collection came with over 200 paintings in addition to his papers, photos, and documents that chronicled his career with NASA and beyond.