The historic Arizona State Museum stands at the entrance to the University of Arizona, housing one of the most significant collections of anthropology in the Southwest. Once a staple for field trips and curious visitors, today the Renaissance Revival building sits closed, with no clear plan for reopening as it awaits extensive upgrades and maintenance.
Established in 1893 by the Arizona Territorial Legislature and officially designated the state’s official museum in 1912, Arizona State Museum showcases 13,000 years of regional and historical artifacts. The fate of the oldest and largest anthropological museum in the Southwest is tied to the financial struggles of its host, the University of Arizona.
In September, the Arizona Board of Regents denied the school’s request for $50 million in system revenue bonds for the museum’s upkeep. Regent Gregg Brewster said he’d rather see the money go toward students during the regents meeting on Sept. 26, 2024.
“I would rather see us polish the young people of Arizona with $50 to $90 million in state-funded education than I would like to see the UA have to stand up and deliver because the state has ignored this project for years and years,” he said during the meeting.
John Arnold, the UA’s chief financial officer, also floated the idea of asking the state for money.
“We’re comfortable with whatever the board wants to do in terms of pausing the bonding pathway as we look for the state’s support for this project,” Arnold said during the meeting.
The museum’s annual funding comes from a variety of sources, including the UA. Arnold said the museum’s annual budget is about $4.5 million, with the university contributing $2.7 million.
The Arizona State Museum’s director’s council sent a letter on Jan. 15 urging the board of regents to approve the funding request which includes repairs to the electric and plumbing system among other needed improvements, highlighting that state statute puts the onus of managing the museum on the board of regents.
“The Arizona board of regents shall direct and manage the museum and shall set apart sufficient space to accommodate it,” the statute reads.
The letter outlines severe maintenance issues, including original 100-year-old electrical wiring encased in wood, outdated fire alarms and suppression systems, corroded plumbing that leaks raw sewage, and hazardous materials such as lead paint and asbestos throughout the building.
Temperature regulation is also a concern, with HVAC systems dating from the 1940s to the 1990s creating extreme and unpredictable temperature zones — ranging from 40 degrees to 98 in a single week.
The council, described as “a group of private, philanthropically minded individuals” dedicated to supporting the museum, argued that the board’s decision was based on confusion over which entity — the Arizona Board of Regents or the Arizona State Legislature — is responsible for the museum’s upkeep.
The letter also urged concerned private citizens to speak out during the public comments section of the regents’ next meeting Feb. 13 at Arizona State University. The meeting will be livestreamed here.
The university had already started preparing for the improvements when the board of regents rejected the funding package, having closed off the building for maintenance more than a month before the board made their decision. Gilbertson said that regents tabled the issue in September and told Arizona Luminaria on Monday that “tabling means the board may consider it at a later date”.
A note on the museum’s website says it closed in August 2024 for renovations and is expected to remain closed for two years.
“ABOR’s decision has left ASM in operational limbo. After more than a year of planning for the maintenance work with UA facilities managers, risk management officials, and the UA fire marshall, museum staff had engaged in moving collections out of harm’s way and relocating staff to safer work areas,” the letter said.
As the museum has been part of UA since its establishment in 1893 and is a legally recognized research unit under Arizona law, the letter said the board of regents has a clear statutory obligation to manage and fund the museum’s maintenance.
“The Arizona State Museum was created for the benefit of the state and the board believes that the maintenance updates should be covered by the state,” Megan Gilbertson, a spokesperson for the board, told Arizona Luminaria.
She added that the school could find private sources of funding but the board doesn’t agree with using student tuition.
“Given the decades-long de-funding of higher education in Arizona, you know we have to make those hard choices and as the University of Arizona works through its financial recovery, its focus really does need to remain on students,” Gilbertson said.
“The finger pointing that was evident at the September meeting is lamentable,” wrote Maura Raffensperger, the chair of the Arizona State Museum Director’s Council, in the January letter to the board of regents.
The council expressed frustration that UA administrators who spoke about the museum at the meeting were unqualified to represent its needs. Instead, it said, the museum’s director, along with key risk management and facilities experts, should be allowed to present their case directly.
UA spokesperson Mitch Zak directed all of Arizona Luminaria’s questions to the board of regents.
“It is clear from the recording of the September meeting that the UA administrators who tried to speak on behalf of ASM were not qualified to do so,” Raffensperger wrote.
The museum’s directors council said the need for improvements isn’t new information, especially for the museum’s main section, the Raymond H. Thompson building.
“The deterioration of Building 26’s (Raymond H. Thompson building) life and safety systems has been made known to the UA central administration since the 1980s by each ASM director in his or her turn,” Raffensperger wrote.
Each year, an average of 750 to 1,000 cubic feet — or two cargo vans — of bulk archaeological research material is added to the museum’s archives. While these collections provide invaluable resources for researchers, historians, and the public, they also require preservation and care.
“The public is not safe in this building in its current condition. The collections are not safe, ASM employees are not safe, and neither are students safe in this building,” Raffensperger wrote on behalf of the council.
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