The Montana Museum of Art and Culture’s new building has been open for nearly two months and within the first weeks of opening has seen incredible growth and engagement from the community. Sitting right next to the Adams Center on the University of Montana campus, the MMAC is working to move its nearly 12,000-object collection from the PARTV building to the newly built location. Since the official opening on Sept. 28, the museum and collection has been getting its long deserved attention.
“It’s been simply spectacular, not just in increased attendance to the MMAC, but also in folks’ responses to the architecture of the new building and the richness of the Permanent Collection,” said Rafael Chacon, director of the MMAC.
The new $15 million dollar building is three stories high and displays 400 pieces at a time.
This major change is a switch from the old location which sat hidden away among the Dennison Theater in the PARTV building. The new building stands out in the University campus, and according to Chacon, has been an incredible benefit, not only for the museum but for the community overall. “Our numbers are the highest they’ve ever been and many of those visitors are students,” said Chacon.
“Having a new home for the collection is a gamechanger, not just in that we have the space and state-of-the-art facility to exhibit our collection, but we also have the space to educate with it,” said Chacon. The MMAC has been hosting educational outreach for a long time, however with their new building these events will look and feel much improved with the ground floor holding classroom space and collection access.
The museum is currently working to move and catalog the extensive collection into the new space, a long process to say the least. With most of the collection held in a vault under the PARTV building, rerooting the 12,000-piece collection will be a task itself.
“Folks have been promised a chance to see this remarkable collection for decades and here it is–well, at least 400 or so objects selected from it,” said Chacon. Chacon said the museum will work to display the collection which has sat hidden for decades. “We’ll be rotating the selection over the course of the next two years and then curating exhibitions based from our Permanent Collection after that.”
