Utah Museum of Fine Arts — Attraction in Salt Lake City

Two warnings : 1st - more than half the museum is of nudity and risqué “art”. I’m not even religious and this place made 50 shades of gray seem PG. 2nd - NOT DISABLED FRIENDLY! Let me explain… We were so excited to come here, and completely shocked with how we were treated. A small group of my family joined us (9 people all together) to come to this museum, one of which is my mentally disabled niece. She is the most joyful and happy child you could ever be around, but is unable to contain her excitement and can be louder at times. When we arrived, we were told sternly to not touch any of the art, I didn’t think much of it as that seems like common practice at a museum of any kind. But then I noticed several other groups who came in after us, and the “no touching” rule wasn’t mentioned at all. I figured maybe they told us because we had children (youngest being 9), and didn’t stress about it. About thirty minutes into viewing the gallery I noticed how many staff members were watching us, specifically my niece, and seemed to be following us through the rooms, they would do laps around the center walls and walk past us repeatedly throughout the entire building, all while completely missing several other guests who were touching paintings, figurines, you name it. When I noticed this happening, I looked for the staff, and all of them were focused on my niece and no one else (mind you no one in our party touched or even came close to any pieces in that building). Shortly after getting to the second floor of the museum, one of the staff members came up to our party to inform us of “all the complaints” that they were getting from the other guests about my niece being too loud and enthusiastic for them to enjoy their visit, and we were told to keep her quiet so as not to disturb anyone else. When we explained that she is mentally disabled and she is expressing her joy and excitement in the only way she knows how, but has not touched anyone or anything, they said that they can’t accommodate her because she was disturbing other guests - keep in mind there are no signs/warnings inside or outside of this building demanding complete silence in order to enjoy art and ironically they literally have a children’s area that is all about noise making… At this point in our visit we took the kids to the “kids room” (which is about 10’x10’, has multiple drums, bells and other music/noise making items as well as “touch/feel” activities for children) while the rest of group finished viewing the gallery - two different staff members walked through the kids room 6 times (in less than 20 minutes) doing laps: in one door and out the other, each time with negative/annoyed looks on their faces. At this point we decided no piece of art was worth being treated so horribly, so we left. This museum is not at all special needs friendly!!! They are discriminatory towards disabled people with no remorse or empathy whatsoever. My niece was absolutely loving the different pieces of art and was so joyful at this new experience, yet was forced to sit quietly in the center of the room instead of experience the joy that art can bring. Art is not just for the “normal”! It should be for everyone regardless of any disability or difference. We will never be returning to this building in the future for any reason, and I will absolutely warn everyone I can to not attend this establishment. In a time all about inclusivity, they failed miserably! And to the management who will undoubtably reach out to “make things better” some failures cannot be repaired, being blatantly rude and discriminatory of a special needs child is...

It's fun to go here on Free museum days (First Wednesdays and Third Saturdays). The third Saturdays also have special craft activities that you can participate in. They are aimed for families and children, but I often enjoy decorating clay plates, making a sculpture, etc as well. The museum staff is very friendly and explains the exhibits that are going on.

UMFA is well-curated, and even though it doesn't have any singular stand alone pieces, it is does have some beautiful works by famous artists such as Renoir and Singer-Sargent. These master works are combined with unique exhibits such as Mayan pottery, Spanish art, and an Egyptian sarcophagus room. It is well worth the low price of admission (especially on aforementioned free days).

Let it be said that I actually like the streamer room. Sure, it could probably be used for a lot more art in the large hall, and it isn't my favorite Feher piece, but it is pretty awesome to have a Feher piece at all. His work is certainly modern contemporary, which many people don't appreciate; that's fine. But he is one of the biggest names in the US of this generation, and the pink streamers are just another example of his simple trademark colorful design. For the people that don't appreciate the neon pink streamers - at least he didn't paint an entire city lot pink here as he did in New York.

There is also a small cafe in the front where you can get cookies, scones, and coffee, which is a great way to end your visit, or hang out while the kids are doing crafts or listening to stories.

The parking is the one thing that leaves more to be desired, but if you go on the weekend there is plenty of free parking since permits...

The biggest downside of the UMFA is that getting to the museum is... nearly impossible during the school year. The museum boasts a maximum capacity of 1000 visitors per hour and for this they have been allotted a total of 17 parking spots by the university. There is a small, paid lot nearby as well, but expect both the 17 dedicated spots and the rest of the paid lot to be taken up by university students (the 17 spots allotted to the museum are almost always filled early by entrepreneurial college students looking for a free space). We ended up having to park off campus, about a mile and a half away, and walking a half hour to get to the museum. We initially arrived 30 minutes early to our ticket appointment, but ended up 30 minutes late after driving around campus looking for a place to park. Public transportation is also limited to this part of the campus.

There are many wonderful reasons to live in Utah. Our museum scene, sadly, is not one of them. The UMFA is one of the few exceptions in Salt Lake. It has a small but wonderful collection of art and history that can't be found most anywhere else in our state. The building is also beautiful and the staff helpful. I hate to fault them for access, but being accessible to the entire public for which they serve is key to the mission of a museum. And currently, they have major issues in this area.

I have always been surprised that more people in Salt Lake haven't been to the UMFA, or simply don't know it exists. However, after experiencing how difficult it is to get there during most of the year, I'm beginning to...