On the eastern edge of the University of Wyoming campus the Art Museum houses over 8,000 art items. Near it the American Heritage Center contains rare books and primary documents about the history of Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain region. This week these two places will have been housed in the Centennial Complex for 25 years.
The theme of the silver anniversary is “Celebrating the Past, Looking Forward.” An open house from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. will be held in the building with live music, art making activities and tours of the AHC and Art Museum exhibits. The hope is that the Centennial Complex will continue to be relevant as a social and intellectual aspect for people in the community.
“It’s a great opportunity for community members to come and see what happens behind the scenes,” said John Waggener, a reference archivist for the AHC.
These places make up the Centennial Complex with a history extending back to 1986 when a fundraising campaign began. At the time it was the largest fundraising goal UW had ever set at $19 million for the buildings and $6 million for to fund endowments, scholarships and faculty positions. Previously a majority of funds for campus growth and projects came from Wyoming legislature. The “Centennial Campaign” marked a new era of increased private giving matched by state funds to the university of Wyoming.
The AHC has documents and artifacts from over 5,000 different areas. A majority of items in their collections have been outright donations. These items can be useful to students and faculty to enhance research.
“The archives have so much incredible material. It’s a matter of getting students to look at it,” said Waggener. “Archival research has a number of layers of complexity, making it more difficult for students to access. The hope is to break through that barrier as we move forward.”
Many people remember the Centennial Complex for its unique shape. The original architect for the building Antoine Predock described his inspiration for the conical shape as an “‘archival mountain’… with a village, the art museum, at its base.”
“If people have ever wondered what goes on in the weird cone-shaped building on campus the Centennial Complex Celebration would be their chance to find out,” said Waggener.
The UW Art Museum focuses on a “museum as classroom” approach, striving to make art apart of the learning process at any age.
“The museum is a wonderful place to think and challenge our perceptions, no matter what we study,” said Marianne Eileen Wardle, a director at the UW Art museum, in a release.
Today the Museum has nine individual galleries, an outdoor sculpture terrace, an education studio and numerous vaults to hold the permanent collections. The UW Art Museum was established in 1972, moving to share the Centennial Complex with the AHC later on.
The AHC was officially established in 1945 and moved to the building in 1993. These archives are among the largest collections in the nation aside from governmental archives. With more than 70,000 cubic feet of artifacts and historical documents, the AHC takes up just over half of the Centennial Complex building.
For more information, visit uwyo.edu/artmuseum/events/index.html
