University of Michigan Museum of Art

The University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is one of the largest university art museums in the United States, with 94,000 square feet (8,700 m2). Alumni Memorial Hall, which was built in 1909 as a war memorial for the university's fallen Civil War alumni, originally housed U-Alumni M's office as well as the university's growing art collection. Jean Paul Slusser was its first director, serving from 1946 (first as acting director, then as director in 1947) until his retirement in 1957. The university has a comprehensive collection that spans more than 150 years of history and includes over 20,000 works of art from various cultures, eras, and media. Although admission is free, a $10 donation is suggested. The museum reopened in the spring of 2009 after a $41.9 million expansion and renovation designed by Brad Cloepfil and Allied Works Architecture, which more than doubled its size. The museum consists of the renovated Alumni Memorial Hall (41,000 sq ft (3,800 m2) and the new Maxine and Stuart Frankel and the Frankel Family Wing (53,000 sq ft (4,900 m2). Christina Olsen, the museum's current director, was appointed in 2017.

History

The main article is: The University of Michigan's History

The University of Michigan was established by an act of the Territory of Michigan on August 26, 1817, as the Catholepistemiad, or Catholcpistemiad Michigania. The university's corporate existence began with the Act of 1817 and has continued through all subsequent changes in its organic law. 11 The seven-syllable Catholepistemiad was a mix of Latin and Ancient Greek that roughly translates to "School of Universal Knowledge." The Catholepistemiad, founded in 1817, was not a university in the modern sense, but rather a centralised system of schools, libraries, and other cultural institutions inspired by Napoleon I's Imperial University of France a decade earlier. 10 In addition to carrying on the central institution, the President and Didactoriim of the Catholepistemiad were given the authority to establish private colleges, academies, libraries, and other educational institutions throughout the Territory of Michigan.  10 Only after Michigan joined the Union in 1837 was a new plan adopted to focus the corporation on higher education.  The charter of the Catholepistemiad is an extraordinary example of the marked French influence on American institutions that began during the Revolutionary War and continued until the third or fourth decade of the nineteenth century, when it began to give way to German influence.

Historical connections

John Dewey, the University of Chicago Laboratory School's founder

The University of Michigan was the New World's first attempt to build a modern university in the European sense. The institution was the clearest and most powerful presentation of what became known in this country as the "Prussian ideas." It was a radically different approach to higher education; a full civil system of education, as opposed to the ecclesiastical system formed by colonial colleges. This newer concept of the university was carried by Michigan alumni and faculty members as they founded other institutions. Most notably, at Cornell University, Andrew Dixon White and Charles Kendall Adams. In the late 1800s, Cornell alumni David Starr Jordan and John Casper Brenner introduced the concept to Stanford University.

Campus

The Ann Arbor campus is divided into four sections: North, Central, Medical, and South. The physical infrastructure consists of over 500 major buildings totaling more than 37.48 million square feet (860 acres; 3.482 km2).  The Central and South Campus areas are connected, whereas the North Campus area is separated from them by the Huron River.  Leased space is also available in buildings throughout the city, many of which are occupied by organisations affiliated with the University of Michigan Health System. On Plymouth Road, an East Medical Campus was built, with several university-owned buildings for outpatient care, diagnostics, and outpatient surgery.

Central Campus

When the University of Michigan moved to Ann Arbor in 1837, it was originally located on Central Campus. On 40 acres (16 ha) of land bounded by North University Avenue, South University Avenue, East University Avenue, and State Street, it originally had a school and dormitory building (where Mason Hall now stands) and several houses for professors. The President's House, located on South University Avenue, is the oldest building on campus and the only surviving building from the original 40-acre (16 ha) campus.] Because Ann Arbor and Central Campus developed concurrently, there is no distinct boundary between the city and university, and some areas contain a mixture of private and university buildings.

HOURS OF OPERATION

Tuesday - Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Thursday through Friday

10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Saturday through Sunday

11 a.m. to 8 p.m.