Phoenix Attractions

Venue: Arizona State Univeristy Art Museum    When: Daily; not Mon or Sun

Part of the Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University, the University Art Museum has been described by Art in America as "the single most impressive venue for contemporary art in Arizona."

With a policy to collect and present works of art to stimulate, challenge and delight a diverse audience, the museum's focus is on contemporary art, new media, prints and crafts, with a special emphasis on contemporary American and European ceramics, Arizona, Southwest and Latino art.

The museum was founded in 1950 with local lawyer Oliver B James' significant gift of 149 American and Mexican artworks, donated over five years. In 1965, when the ASU's Hayden Library was completed, what used to be the Matthews Library was emptied of books, leaving the art behind.

From its single gallery, the collection soon grew. By 1978 it filled 10,000 square feet of exhibition space across the second floor of the Matthews Center, with the addition of prints and American craft exhibits, boosted in 1977 with a National Endowment for the Arts matching grant to purchase contemporary American ceramics. It now boasts one of the largest contemporary American and British ceramic collections in the US.

In April 1989 the museum moved into five large galleries in the newly-constructed Nelson Fine Arts Center. A second separate gallery space was opened to the public in March 2002, in the new Ceramics Research Center.