What It Is

The endowment for the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University funds museum operations, including maintaining the museum's collection, bringing in new exhibits, and creating important outreach programs such as touring exhibits and Internet access. The endowment also helps bring in and prepare major exhibits, such as the Art of the Ancient Mediterranean World: Egypt, Greece, Rome exhibit from the renowned collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which will be on display at the BYU Museum of Art until June 2005.

Why It Is a Priority

The BYU Museum of Art is unique. Its mission is to create a warm, spiritual environment in which the arts can be studied, evaluated, and displayed. Yet, with the exception of five salaried positions, the Museum of Art receives no university funds for its operations. Lacking an adequate endowment, there is constant pressure on the museum to annually acquire operational funding. At the same time, the museum has been given the mission of providing educational experiences for a wide and varied audience, including BYU students, elementary and secondary students, and the public in general. This is a difficult—but important—mission. It is a mission that is almost impossible without a sufficient endowment.

What It Does and How It Helps

Quality art can touch hearts in unique and important ways. Art museums are places people can visit with their own thoughts and come to terms with their own lives, well-being, spirituality, and values. The Museum of Art is one of the more remarkable in that respect. It is a real-time, real-life, philosophical and spiritual environment. Its collections have the power to influence, provoke inquiry, and provide meaningful answers to questions of morality, well-being, and personal identity. It is also a unique environment in a university setting that encourages the softer, more spiritual side of life that can provoke self-reflection and higher aspirations.

Generally speaking, everything the museum does is free to the public. The exceptions are the major touring shows. With an adequate endowment, the Museum of Art would be able to better serve its varied patrons. It would serve as a point of access to numerous sociological, psychological, historical, cultural, philosophical, and political ideologies. People from humanities, literature, history, geography, and other disciplines can conduct classes using these collections to help enhance the learning experience.

Your investment in the endowment for the Museum of Art will play a major role in the work of this unique and valuable educational entity by allowing it to spread its influence in many directions and to a much wider clientele than can generally visit the museum in person. And it will help enhance the spiritual, educational, cultural, and other personal experiences of those who visit.