Did You Know?

• The UMFA is the only institution in the region that collects, exhibits, interprets, and cares for an extensive collection of original artworks representing a diverse range of global cultures from the ancient to the contemporary.
• The UMFA is located in the Marcia and John Price Museum Building on the University of Utah campus between Rice-Eccles Stadium and the Jon M. Huntsman Center.
• The Museum traces its start to 1914, when a small art gallery opened in the University’s Park Building on Presidents Circle. The gallery was renovated in the late 1940s to accommodate a substantial gift of art from Winifred Kimball Hudnut, daughter of a prominent Utah pioneer family. The new gallery was incorporated as the Utah Museum of Fine Arts and reopened in 1951.
• Frank Sanguinetti, hired in 1967, was the Museum’s first professional director and led a period of dramatic expansion of both the collection and facilities. In 1970 the UMFA moved into the University’s new Arts and Architecture Center, and in 2001 into the 74,000-square-foot Marcia and John Price Museum Building, the UMFA’s current home.
• The Price Building was designed by Machado and Silvetti of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Prescott Muir Architects of Salt Lake City. It won the 2000 Honor Award for Urban Design from the Boston Society of Architects and the 2000 Merit Award for Excellence in Architecture from the New England chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
• In 1972 the UMFA was the first university museum west of the Mississippi to be accredited by the American Association of Museums, now the American Alliance of Museums (AAM).
• David Dee, executive director from 2002 to 2009, led the now significantly expanded UMFA through a pivotal period that included the professionalization of staff and operations, key acquisitions of art across the Museum’s collections, and the presentation of some of the Museum’s most popular exhibitions, including Monet to Picasso from the Cleveland Museum of Art (2008).
• In February 2005 the Utah State Legislature declared the UMFA the state’s fine arts museum, confirming the importance of the Museum’s role as a center for art, culture, and education in the state.
• Gretchen Dietrich has led UMFA as executive director since 2010. Under her leadership, the Museum has flourished, with increased attendance, audience engagement and community outreach, higher revenues and new institutional support, and an elevated national profile. From 2015–2018, Dietrich served on the board of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD). In fall 2019 she was selected to join the inaugural board of directors for Art Bridges, a new foundation dedicated to expanding access to American art across the country.

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Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.)

The Utah Museum of Fine Arts proudly leads the way as the first and only institution in Utah to be certified by Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.). Launched in 2014, W.A.G.E. Certification is a national program that recognizes nonprofit arts organizations committed to paying artist fees that meet or exceed established minimum standards. This certification represents a pioneering effort to set a sector-wide minimum for compensation and establish clear guidelines that uphold the value of artistic labor. We are proud to join this movement and lead by example in supporting artists and their work.