As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of our museum, with an open house and birthday party scheduled for November 5, we’re looking back at our history. This time: the 1990s.
If there’s one word to describe the 1990s at the Georgia Museum of Art, it’s progress. At the beginning of the decade, the museum began an internship program that is still going strong more than 30 years later. Since its inception, the museum’s internship program has provided hundreds of UGA undergraduate and graduate students with on-the-job training, with many former student interns going on to work in the field.
In 1992, William Underwood Eiland, who served as the museum’s director for 30 years and retired earlier this year, took the reins as director and fostered unprecedented growth. Under his leadership, the dream of building a new museum on campus became a reality. In the spring of 1996, a 52,000-square-foot museum facility opened on East Campus as part of the UGA Performing and Visual Arts Complex. The new museum opened just in time for the flood of visitors who made their way to Athens for soccer matches at Sanford Stadium during the 1996 Olympic Games.
While “big name” artists had a presence at the museum in the 90s, exhibitions also featured works by art school faculty and students, regional artists, and Athens’ creative community. The museum also pushed the envelope and elevated discussion of social issues with exhibitions such as the digital AIDS Quilt and consideration of more diverse cultural perspectives through a focus on international, African American, and woman artists.