Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University [1974- ]
ECA Control Number: 16853
Record Level: Listing
Record Type: Art Museum/Institution
Museum/Institution Name: Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University
Aka: Ulrich Museum ; Ulrich Museum of Art
Location(s):
1845 Fairmount Street, Wichita KS 67260-0046
Founded: 1974
Closed/Acquired: n/a
About:
“The Ulrich Museum of Art was established in 1974 to enhance and support Wichita State University’s educational and service mission. Then-president Clark Ahlberg believed a superior university should be ever mindful of the thriving city surrounding it. In 1977 he articulated his commitment to this belief: “We have an obligation to reach as many people as possible and to do it with the highest standards – in this case, the highest artistic standards – if we are to properly serve this urban area.” To execute his plan to make art an integral part of university and community life, Ahlberg recruited Dr. Martin H. Bush, formerly of Syracuse University. In 1971 Bush began his 20-year tenure as vice president of Academic Resources, during which he guided the establishment of a museum and collection that today enjoy a national reputation. In 2005 the American Association of Museums in Washington, D.C., awarded museum accreditation to the Ulrich, as one of only 12 accredited museums in Kansas.
The museum was named in honor of Edwin A. Ulrich, a Hyde Park, New York, businessman who donated his collection of more than 300 works by the early 20th-century painter Frederick Judd Waugh and set up an endowment to support the new institution. The founding of the Ulrich coincided with the construction of a new facility for the museum and the WSU School of Art and Design, the McKnight Art Center. A 1995 renovation created additional gallery and office space as well as a terraced sculpture court at the entrance.
A key element of President Ahlberg’s master plan for an enhanced university environment in the 1970s was the presence of major works of art situated outdoors throughout the 330-acre campus. Today the Martin H. Bush Outdoor Sculpture Collection at Wichita State University boasts seventy-six monumental works by such internationally eminent artists as Arman, Fernando Botero, Andy Goldsworthy, Barbara Hepworth, Luis Alfonso Jimenez, and Claes Oldenburg. In 2006 the journal Public Art Review ranked the Outdoor Sculpture Collection among the ten best on an American university campus.”
Citation: “Museum History.” Ulrich Museum of Art Website. Updated unknown. Accessed December 22, 2016. http://webs.wichita.edu/?u=ulrichmuseum&p=/aboutus/museumhistory
WORKS BY EMIL CARLSEN
LIST OF EXHIBITIONS (1)
AFTER CARLSEN’S DEATH (1)
2010 Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University, Wichita KS, “Art of Our Time: Selections from the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University”, April 24 – August 8.
DURING CARLSEN’S LIFETIME (0)
Document Information
Digital-born Document Number:
ECA.2016.16853
Digital Document Provenance:
Original compiled and researched document by the Emil Carlsen Archives, 266 West 21st Street, Suite 4E, New York, NY 10011.
Document License:
Creative Commons Corporation shareAlike (sa) license. Some of the information contained within this document may hold further publication restrictions depending on final use. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine.
Image License:
The author of this artwork died more than 70 years ago. According to U.S. Copyright Law, copyright expires 70 years after the author’s death. In other countries, legislation may differ.
Record Birth Date:
December 22, 2016
Last Update:
December 22, 2016
