EAST LANSING, MICH.- The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University opened this past Saturday at a dedication ceremony attended by 2,000 people, including Eli and Edythe Broad, MSU President Lou Anna Simon, Architect Zaha Hadid and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder.

Dedicated to exploring global contemporary culture and ideas through art, the Broad Art Museum at MSU will serve as both an educational resource for the campus community and a cultural hub for the Mid-Michigan region. The museum will present contemporary works within a historical context through access to a study collection of more than 7,500 objects, ranging from the Greek and Roman periods to modern art.

The museum is named in honor of MSU alumnus Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe, longtime supporters of the university who provided the lead gift of $28 million for the museum. The total fundraising goal for the building is $40 million, of which $38.8 million has been raised to date.

“Great art deserves great architecture, and so does a great university,” Simon said. “The Broad Museum’s bold concept and design reflect Michigan State’s ethos of connecting both campus and community to world-class innovation, global vision, and transformative opportunity.”

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Hadid, the 46,000-square-foot Broad Art Museum at MSU features a striking façade of pleated stainless steel and glass, distinguishing the building from MSU’s traditional Collegiate Gothic north campus. The museum will present contemporary art within a historical context through its study collection of more than 7,500 objects, ranging from the Greek and Roman periods to modern art. The building features galleries for special exhibitions, modern and contemporary art, new media, photography and works on paper. The facility also includes an education wing, a works-on-paper study center, shop and café. Adjacent to the museum is an expansive outdoor sculpture garden and a large pedestrian plaza. Eli and Edythe Broad contributed the lead gift of $28 million toward the $40 million museum and donated 18 artworks.

Located at one of the main entrances to campus at the corner of Grand River Avenue and Farm Lane, the Broad Art Museum will serve as a gateway between the university and the East Lansing community.

“Edye and I are delighted to make this innovative museum possible, and we expect that people from East Lansing and around the world will be drawn to see this bold architecture as much as to view the art within its walls,” Broad said. “This museum has special significance to us because it represents the intersection of two of our passions—art and education. There is no doubt that this museum will help propel MSU far into the future as it serves and enriches the students and community.”

“We are thrilled to celebrate the opening of the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, and are eager to bring our full spectrum of programs to the campus and the East Lansing community,” Rush said. “With this extraordinary new building, our great study collection, and our focus on exploring contemporary art from around the world, we are creating a university art museum unlike any other.”

The museum will also actively engage with the international artistic community through a series of partnerships with contemporary art spaces around the world. During the opening events today and tomorrow, the Broad MSU will connect visitors via live internet feeds with Protocinema and Salt in Istanbul; Grey Noise in Dubai; Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing; 53 Museum in Guangzhou, China; and San Art in Ho Chi Minh City.