More than two years later, MUAH is not close to realizing these goals. Donations have slowed, attendance is sluggish and only one gallery is open. Major renovations have yet to begin, and the building's façade at 125 S. Main St. remains covered by a temporary banner.
"We all had bigger eyes then [in 2004]," says banker Thomas M. Alder, treasurer of the museum's board of directors. "I must admit, I figured that things would be a lot stronger and that people would come through with bigger dollars. We've sort of shifted gears since then."
Like almost every nonprofit arts organization in the sputtering economy of the new millennium, MUAH (pronounced "MOO-ah") has had difficulty raising the money it needs to fulfill its goals. The fledgling museum, which opened its doors to the public in November 2004, also suffers from an identity problem.
Say "Museum of Utah Art and History" to most Utahns and you'll likely get a blank stare or a baffled look. Do you mean the LDS Church Museum of History and Art? they might ask. Or the Utah Museum of Fine Art? Or the Utah Museum of Natural History?
"There are still a lot of people who are trying to figure out who we are," says MUAH executive director Kandace Steadman, who took over last fall after former chief Thomas Rugh left to take a senior job with a financial-services company. One of her biggest tasks, Steadman, says, is to correct confusion about the museum. "It's going to take a long time."
Filling the gap: Backed by such Utah cultural and financial heavyweights as Zions Bank President A. Scott Anderson and former Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce chair Fred S. Ball, MUAH was conceived in 2000 by a group of arts patrons to fill what they believed was a gap in Utah's cultural offerings. Salt Lake City had museums devoted to natural history, Mormon history and art. But the city lacked a venue for visitors interested in the broader story of Utah's history and cultural heritage.
MUAH founders spoke of staging exhibitions devoted to the 1900 Scofield mining disaster, the Japanese-American internment camp at Topaz or Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty on the Great Salt Lake. They also envisioned a place where Utah-made art from other state institutions, such as the Springville Museum of Art, could be shown.
Although expectations have been scaled back a little, that original mission remains intact. MUAH associates interviewed for this story were unanimous in their belief that the museum, despite its slow start, is still on track.
Much of the credit goes to Steadman, MUAH's former deputy director, who is quietly moving the museum forward with a positive attitude and a roll-up-the-sleeves work ethic. In additional to wooing potential donors, Steadman has been known to paint the gallery walls herself and even tinker with the sump pump in the museum's basement.
With the help of a full-time assistant, a part-time accountant and some student volunteers, Steadman runs the museum on an annual operating budget of about $300,000 - compared, say, with $2.2 million for the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Because of budget constraints, MUAH is only open to the public four hours a day.
"We're trying to provide quality programming on a shoestring," she says.
That programming so far has included exhibitions on the history of Jews in Utah, 19th-century pioneer furniture and the centennial of Salt Lake City's YWCA. The museum also houses a recording studio for the YourStory project, which encourages Utahns to preserve their life histories on an audio CD. Almost 400 oral histories have been recorded since the project kicked off last year.
MUAH is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., which gives the Utah museum priority access to the Smithsonian's touring shows. Steadman hasn't made much use of this - few of the touring exhibits have Utah ties - although she has booked a March 2007 lecture by Smithsonian scholar Richard Kurin, author of a new book about the institution's fabled Hope Diamond.
Because MUAH has no permanent collection, Steadman mostly borrows artworks and other exhibition materials from private collectors or other Utah museums. State institutions often are happy to lend items from their archives that they don't have space to display.
"People in Utah are generous [and] . . . willing to share what they have," says Steadman, who believes this cooperative spirit benefits everyone. "It doesn't make sense to run museums as islands. They need to be institutions that build bridges with each other."
Dialing for dollars: Raising the estimated $10 million to $15 million needed has been difficult - especially with Utah cultural projects such as the Leonardo at Library Square competing for the same funds. Because it is independent, MUAH gets no state or university assistance. The Utah Legislature in January rejected Steadman's plea for state funding.
"We've had a lot of donations, but it's such a struggle," Alder says. "There are so many hands out there for a finite amount of dollars."
Nevertheless, MUAH advocates see new signs of hope. Attendance, while modest, has risen significantly in 2006. The museum's share of ZAP funding - Salt Lake County sales taxes earmarked for arts and cultural organizations - tripled this year, Steadman says.
"It just takes time to get these things off the ground," says board member and art dealer Clayton Williams, speaking for many friends of the museum. "It'll eventually get to where we want it to be. I feel very hopeful about the future. We have many stories to tell."
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* BRANDON GRIGGS can be contacted at griggs@sltrib.com or 801-257-8689. Send comments about this story to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
What's showing
* THE MUSEUM OF UTAH ART & HISTORY is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday at 125 S. Main St. in Salt Lake City. Its current exhibition, "Willie & Martin Remembered: A Tribute to the Mormon Handcart Pioneers," features 37 works by contemporary Utah artists commemorating the 1856 handcart expedition that was rescued from a Wyoming blizzard. The show will be on display through Oct. 31. For more information, call 801-355-5554 or visit http://www.muah net.org.
* FOR MORE INFORMATION on the YourStory oral history project, call 801-581-7993 or visit http://www.yourstory.utah.edu.
