50@50: The Frost Art Museum opens new state-of-the-art facility in 2008


To celebrate the university’s 50th anniversary, FIU News is sharing 50 moments in FIU’s history as part of our “50@50″ series. In the video below, former Frost Art Museum Director Carol Damian reflects on the museum’s first year in its new building. Jordana Pomeroy took on the role of director of the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at FIU earlier this year.

By Joel Delgado ’12 MS ’17 

The Art Museum at FIU, which later became The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, was marked with a humble beginning in 1977.

Initially, the museum was housed in the first floor of Primera Casa with a small gallery of less than 3,000 square feet. But the museum, along with the rest of the university around it, experienced growth that would bring recognition locally, nationally and internationally.

In 1999, the museum received accreditation from the American Associations of Museums (now the American Alliance of Museums) and two years later became an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

Thirty-one years after opening its doors in Primera Casa, The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum debuted its current facility in November 2008. The new 46,000-square-foot structure features a soaring three-story glass atrium entrance and a dramatically suspended staircase leading to the second and third floors, which contains more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space.

Since 2008, The Frost has become an essential part of Miami’s growing arts community and a cultural staple of the MMC campus.

Three of its nine galleries are dedicated to the permanent collection, while the remaining six galleries feature temporary exhibitions. The Frost has hosted a number of notable exhibitions since its opening, including Capture the Moment: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs, Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum and many others.