Image: University of Michigan Museum of Art, Washington
The University of Michigan Museum of Art will reopen Alumni Memorial Hall on October 10–11, 2026, following an eight-month renovation and a special celebration. The renovation focused on the historic building’s 120-year-old marble floors.
Throughout October and November, UMMA will offer new exhibitions, artist talks, behind-the-scenes building tours, films, art making, giveaways and other special events, all free and open to the public. The programme also includes exhibitions, architecture and history tours, art-making activities, conversations with artists, and a new free weekend art shuttle connecting downtown Ann Arbor with the museum. Visitors can go behind the scenes to uncover the building’s history, learn how its historic marble floor was renovated, and explore UMMA’s newly opened fall exhibitions.
Opening September 26, Rick Lowe’s ‘Black Wall Street Journey: Re and De Imagining Black Progress’ is described as his largest U.S. solo exhibition to date. The exhibition brings together painting, sculpture and social research to transform the visual language of finance into a public artwork about Black progress, structural inequity and civic imagination.
Opening October 3, ‘Holly Bass: We Hold These Truths’ transforms UMMA’s iconic Lizzie and Jonathan Tische Apse with an immersive installation that moves through different eras of American life, asking visitors to consider which national ideals we preserve and celebrate, and which we store away.
The reopening is presented as a chance for the community and visitors to rediscover what makes art experiences special, encounter new ideas and reconnect with one another in one of the city’s most iconic spaces.
