Cultural Environment

Students can immerse themselves in culture at BYU. Dance, theatre, music, art exhibits, and museums all await to nourish the soul seeking after "anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy" (Articles of Faith 1:13).

BYU sponsors performance groups in folk dance, ballroom dance, ballet, modern dance, and precision marching. Each year these groups perform major concerts on campus and tour throughout the world.

Popular and classical plays and films, as well as original compositions, are offered by the Department of Theatre and Media Arts. The College of Humanities sponsors a weekly International Cinema Program, and from September through March the School of Music presents several recitals and concerts weekly.

Museum of Art

The Museum of Art was completed and opened during fall 1993. Funded by private donors, the 100,000-square-foot museum is located directly north of the Harris Fine Arts Center. A sculpture garden separates the two buildings and together form a striking visual and performing arts center. The museum houses the university's superb collection of paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, works on paper, and historical musical instruments. Major bodies of work the university owns are by such eminent artists as Mahonri Y. Young, J. Alden Weir, Maynard Dixon, C. C. A. Christensen, and Minerva Teichert. Besides its rich array of American art, the collection includes rare prints by Rembrandt, Dürer, and Daumier.

Major traveling exhibitions and exhibitions from the museum's permanent collections are scheduled on a rotating basis. The museum offers a variety of educational programs for campus and community audiences as well. Included in the Horne Center for the Study of Art are a print study room, a library, a didactic gallery, a seminar room, and classrooms. The museum also features a café, bookstore, and auditorium.

Performing Arts Series

The BYU Performing Arts Series presents some of the most celebrated artists in the world. Concerts and productions are scheduled throughout each year in the Harris Fine Arts Center and other venues. Season or individual event tickets are available at reduced prices for students, faculty, and staff. For further information contact the Fine Arts Ticket Office at (801) 378-HFAC (4322).

In recent years the Performing Arts Series has included

James Galway
Wynton Marsalis
Alvin Ailey Repertory Dance Ensemble
Clair Bloom
Dawn Upshaw
Peking Opera
Ballet West
King's Singers
Utah Symphony
Ani and Ida Kavafian
Canadian Brass
Ballet Folklorico de Mexico

M. L. Bean Life Science Museum

H. Duane Smith, Director (290 MLBM)
Douglas C. Cox, Assistant Director

The Monte L. Bean Museum is a fully functional, accredited, professional museum. Its vast teaching and research collections include nearly two million arthropods, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds, and prepared shells, and more than 600,000 plants and lichens. Specimens for these collections, which represent creative work by university faculty and students, have been gathered throughout the world, making the museum one of the major repositories of scientific material in the western United States.

The museum and its collections are utilized by university classes in integrative biology, plant and animal science, education, art, and other disciplines. The Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum also maintains and manages the Lytle Nature Preserve for the university. Located in the northernmost extension of the Mojave Desert southwest of St. George, Utah, this 562-acre desert classroom is in a part of Utah that is unique not only for its plant and animal communities but also for its setting.

Public programs include changing, rotating, and permanent exhibits of natural communities that illustrate the fascinating relationships between plants, animals, and their physical environment. Educational programs serve more than 200,000 annual visitors and provide classes and programs for public and private schools and many other kinds of organizations. Museum hours are Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The museum is closed on Sunday. Admission is free.

The Western North American Naturalist, a nationally recognized natural history journal, is published from the museum. Other museum publications include professional and popular works such as A Utah Flora and Snakes of Utah.

Museum of Peoples and Cultures

Marti Lu Allen, Director (105 ALLN)

The Museum of Peoples and Cultures (MPC) houses, cares for, and performs research on archaeological and ethnographic collections from around the world. The strengths of the museum's holdings are in prehistoric Utah, the American Southwest, Mesoamerica, ancient Peru, and Polynesia. An approved state and federal archaeological repository, the museum holds a noncirculating library and a photographic archive documenting BYU archaeological research and artifactual materials.

Institutional objectives are to interpret and help elucidate the history and culture of the peoples of the world and to convey that knowledge to the scholarly community as well as to the general public. The museum's strongest commitment lies in serving the teaching and research functions of the university. In BYU's "teaching museum," not only do students perform office and collections duties, but students also curate all exhibitions as part of the formal curricula taught by museum staff adjunct to the Department of Anthropology.

Students plan and execute public programs and design promotional strategy as part of their coursework as well. Offered in a series of three consecutive courses—one each fall semester, winter semester, and spring term (enrollment subject to director's approval)—the courses have as their principal objectives (1) to provide students the broadest possible range of museum experience (e.g., collections management, registration, outreach, curatorial research) and (2) to advise students in formulating realistic career objectives.

The museum's student exhibitions are staged in Allen Hall and change yearly. The museum also produces occasional satellite exhibits at other university locations, such as the Museum of Art and the Joseph Smith Building. Tours of the Allen Hall galleries can be arranged by calling (801) 378-6112. Because scheduling is based on student employee availability, it is advisable to book tours from one to three weeks in advance. Visitors may also choose to guide themselves through the galleries, but groups larger than fifteen people should contact the museum in advance for special instructions.

The MPC offers many community educational opportunities. Available for loan to classrooms and inbound populations are anthropology teaching kits that explore the native cultures of various geographical areas. The kits include replica artifacts, handicrafts, and educational books and videos. Students and civic volunteers are invited to serve in fields such as educational programming, public relations, archaeological research, and public presentations. The MPC hosts an activity patch program for Scouts of all ages and other interested parties. Museum patches can be earned by visiting the museum and completing the patch requirements. For information about any of these programs, call (801) 378-6112.

Located at 700 North 100 East in Provo (one block south of the Brick Oven restaurant), the museum is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is free, and guided tours can be arranged for a niminal charge. The MPC is closed on holidays and for two weeks in December between fall and winter semesters. Office and library hours vary according to student schedules.

Faculty and Student Performances, Exhibitions, and Showcases

Throughout the year the faculty of the Departments of Visual Arts, Dance, Theatre and Media Arts, and the School of Music are featured in exhibitions, plays and other productions, and music performances.

As part of their educational experience, students, both individually and in groups, present concerts, exhibitions, films, plays, recitals, and productions. Theatre Ballet, The Dancers' Company, International Folk Dance Ensemble, Ballroom Dance Company, Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestras, Young Ambassadors, Living Legends, University Singers, and Synthesis Jazz Ensemble are but a few of the groups that perform in the various university venues. Plays, musical theatre, and opera, as well as art and design exhibitions, are also a part of the outstanding student fare available to the university community.

For further information, contact the the Fine Arts Ticket Office at (801) 378-HFAC (4322).