New University of Iowa Art Museum eyes 2019

AMES - Battling through funding rejections, a search for development partners and scrapping an $80 million construction plan on private property, University of Iowa officials are asking the Board of Regents to back a new, more-frugal proposal to resurrect its Museum of Art.

A regents committee on Wednesday agreed to recommend the full board give UI officials permission to proceed with project planning for a new art museum near the campus' Main Library. The project's proposed budget of between $50 million and $60 million is as much as $30 million less than the original plan - thanks to use of land the university already owns.

Museum construction would include library renovations and co-locate library and museum support services, reducing the new museum's square footage, according to regent documents. That change serves the university's desire to shed some of the original cost and make better use of campus space.

'The proposed site, adjacent and connected to the Main Library, is in the best interests of the university and its students,” according to a UI proposal submitted to the regents. 'Given the importance of access to the collection for students, faculty, and the university community, locating a new and permanent facility on or near the main campus core is an important feature of the proposed site.”

University officials have not laid out a specific timeline for the project, but Rod Lehnertz, UI senior vice president of finance and operations, on Wednesday told regents a team is to pursue design plans in the coming months in hopes of debuting a new facility by 2019.

'Obviously, there is a lot of work to do to confirm how that all comes together, but that is the target, which represents the 50th anniversary of the Museum of Art on our campus,” Lehnertz said.

UI officials haven't nailed down specifics of where on the library site a new museum might sit, but Lehnertz said it likely would make use of a parking lot next to the library - adjacent Gibson Square Park. The goal would be to save the park and even use it - potentially as a sculpture or art garden.

'We think this will bring more of the public to it,” Lehnertz said. 'And we like the idea of saving it.”

The proposal could include covered parking and raise up the museum, which would be near the Iowa River but out of the floodplain.

'We want no shadow of a doubt that a museum on that site would be free from future flood concerns,” Lehnertz said.

The university in 2014 entered into a partnership to replace its old art museum, which was devastated by the 2008 flood, with a 75,000-square-foot facility on leased private property near the intersection of Clinton and Burlington streets. With that lease and buyout proposal, UI officials estimated the project value at $107 million, raising red flags with new UI President Bruce Harreld.

Calling it a 'huge investment” in another part of the community - off campus - Harreld pushed his staff to scour existing resources for alternatives.

They came up with the library proposal and this week are asking regent permission to proceed with the revamped project by continuing work with BNIM Architects of Des Moines. BNIM was involved in the original museum's design, and the firm was chosen in 2015 for the public-private partnership to replace it - providing programming and schematic design services.

'A great deal of the work completed through that process remains relevant to the project's new site,” UI officials stated in their proposal to the regents. 'BNIM has unique and considerable insight into the needs of the project.”

Funding for the project would come from a combination of university and gift revenue, according to the UI proposal. And although officials expects completion of the project to be years away, Harreld said he wants much of the university's more-than 14,500-piece art collection back on campus in a temporary location within 12 to 18 months.

Since floodwaters in 2008 inundated the old art museum along Riverside Drive, the UI collection - valued at more than $500 million - has been dispersed, with some housed at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, some involved in traveling exhibitions and loan programs, and some set up temporarily in the Iowa Memorial Union on campus.

Despite the artwork's displacement, museum officials have managed to produce historic audience numbers in recent years - setting an all-time museum record for statewide participation and audience numbers in the 2015 budget year and a record for overall participation in 2014.

Much of that success can be credited to the university's Jackson Pollock 'Mural,” which was part of a show at the Getty in Los Angeles in 2013-14 that attracted 304,349 visitors. It also has been involved in massive shows overseas, including one in Venice, Italy between April 23 and Nov. 16 last year that drew more than 253,590 people.

Harreld on Wednesday told regents the creative ways of reaching out to larger audiences that grew out of flood-response and recovery efforts have 'done a wonderful job” of re-engaging the world and showcasing Iowa through its art.

And, he said, they're looking at ways to continue doing some of that in the future. At the same time, officials said they're eager to re-establish campus as the art collection's home base.

'Continued storage of the Museum of Art collection at a remote location negatively impacts academic programs,” according to regent documents. 'The collection is an integral part of the academic mission for those studying, teaching and researching within visual arts programs. Access to the collection and adjacency with other UI educational programs for university students is essential.”