After the renovation of the gallery was finished, the University’s president, A. Ray Olpin, established it as the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on May 6, 1951.

Over the years this annual fund has helped support the expansion of the museum’s collections and its ability to offer art education programs.

Due to donations from patrons, local and national foundations, the University community, and the citizens of the State of Utah, the UMFA’s collection now encompasses 5,200 years of artistic creativity.

In April 2009, David Dee resigned from the museum and Gretchen Dietrich was named Executive Director effective August 2010.

[2] Works of the European tradition from the 14th to the 19th centuries include such artists as Filippo Lippi, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Brueghel the Younger, Anthony van Dyck, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Hyacinthe Rigaud, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Thomas Gainsborough, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and Auguste Rodin.

Represented American artists include Benjamin West, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Edmonia Lewis, and John Singer Sargent.

Modern and contemporary holdings include Helen Frankenthaler, Yayoi Kusama, Nancy Holt, and Robert Smithson.

Activities include self-guided visits of the galleries, hands-on art projects, films, lectures, and informative guided tours.