$40 Million For New Museum

A new Art Museum for the University of Iowa now has an estimated price tag of $40-50 million according to estimates from the final report of the envisioning committee that wrapped up it's work yesterday with plans to present a final report to University President Sally Mason on Tuesday.

The initial summary in the Press-Citizen looks extremely promising- the Envisioning Committee hit the nail right on the head by calling for a central location for the new Museum. It's long past time that the world-class collection we have the U gets a central location for the entire community and more importantly a facility to match. $40 million seems about right, even if the bulk of it does have to come from private donors.

They wisely excluded a location near Hancher- and the other sites sound promising as well. The first, East of the Linquist Center between Clinton and Capitol Streets confused me, because that's pretty much the Old Capitol Mall. Which perhaps would be awesome, but only if they can carve out a specific space for themselves. I don't think it'd work if they had to share with other University offices, etc. (Though if they remodeled and took over the Second Floor? Hmmm...)

The second, on the block of Starbucks and the Mill Restaurant would be excellent. It's own space, a nice compliment to the (hopefully) new Music Building across the street. Starbucks with it's overpriced coffee I can do without, but making the Mill move would be a wrench. Their pizza is GOOD.

The third sounds slightly bizzare: above a new four story parking ramp across from the Iowa Memorial Union. I'm not sure I can even picture what that looks like. Unless they move the Dance Department to the Old Museum Building (which I think the Dance Department wants to do anyway) and built a new four story ramp and stuck the Museum on top of it... I'm really not sure how to feel about it. I guess I'd have to see a visual representation or something.

Either way- this is an awesome piece of good news! Hopefully they can get a plan in short order and start fundraising as quickly as possible!