Tucson Museum of Art receives $1.5 million gift to upgrade education center

The Tucson Museum of Art will embark on a major upgrade of its education center thanks to a $1.5 million gift from Tucson philanthropists Alice and Paul Baker. This is the second-largest donation TMA has ever received, and the largest earmarked for education.

“It’s an institution-changing type of gift,” says Jeremy Mikolajczak, the museum’s chief executive officer.

The education center, just east of the museum, is in a building that once housed the city’s courtrooms and judges’ quarters.

The upgrades to the building will include:

• Four new classrooms, as well as updates of existing classrooms;
• A new 2,300-square-foot auditorium, which will accommodate up to 180;
• A 1,000-square-foot research library;
• Adaptable meeting space with updated technology;
• A renovated administrative center;
• A new public entrance.

More than 27,000 people participate in the museum’s education programs annually, said Mikolajczak.

“Across the board, the gift will make an impact not only to K-12 students, but for our lifelong learning classes and the community,” he said. “This gift is so needed.”

TMA is not dawdling — construction is slated to begin in late February or early March and be completed just before TMA begins its 2019 summer camp in June. It will be called the Alice Baker Center for Art Education.

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In addition, the Bakers have committed to gift a substantial portion of their pre-Columbian and Latin American artworks, further bulking up TMA’s already impressive collection.

Pre-Columbian and Latin American art is on view in TMA’s Palice Pavilion.

“Since the inception of the Palice Pavilion in 2001, the Bakers have been part of the driving force behind our representation of Latin American art,” said Mikolajczak. “We’ve had their art on loan, but to have a firm commitment of this artwork is really outstanding,”

Earlier this year, I. Michael and Beth Kasser made a $2.5 million gift to TMA — the largest gift the museum has ever received — as well as giving their collection of 250 pre-Columbian artworks on a long-term loan.

When the Kassers’ artworks are merged with the Bakers’ gift and TMA’s already impressive collection of pre-Columbian and Latin American art, the museum will be kicked up to another league.

“It really positions the museum as a regional research center for this artwork,” said Mikolajczak.

The Bakers’ donation means the Tucson Museum of Art has raised 72 percent of a fundraising goal set in 2016. The “TMA/100: A Vision for the 21st Century” campaign aims to raise $5.5 million by 2023.

Since the launch of that campaign, TMA received enough donations to invest $750,000 in upgrades to the main building. Those included upping the exhibit space by 1,500 square feet, to 5,000 square feet total.