The Broad/MSU will serve as an educational resource for the university and a cultural hub for the state of Michigan. The museum also will actively engage the international artistic community through a series of partnerships with contemporary art spaces around the world.
The 46,000 square feet museum featuring a facade of pleated stainless steel and glass that distinguishes the new building from the traditional brick Collegiate Gothic north campus. Seventy percent of the space in the museum will be devoted to art display, including areas for special exhibitions, modern and contemporary art, new media, photography and works on paper.
The Broad Museum appears as a sharp, directed body, comprising directional pleats which reflect the topographic and circulatory characteristics of its surrounding landscape. Its outer skin resonates with these different directions and orientations, lending the structure an ever-changing appearance on passing.
The museum is dedicated to explore global contemporary culture and ideas through art. With a collection containing 7,500 objects from the Greek and Roman periods through the Renaissance and Modern, the Broad/MSU expects to contextualize the wide range of contemporary art practices within an expansive historical context.
The Broad/MSU is named for Eli and Edythe Broad, longtime supporters of the university who provided the lead gift for the museum. The Broads’ gift of $28 million, with $21 million designated for construction of the building and $7 million to be used for acquisitions, exhibitions and operations, was the catalyst for the project. The total fund raising goal for the building is $40 million, of which $36.7 million has been raised to date.
The project started in 2007 and is expected to end by 2012.
