An artistic rendition depicts the proposed expansion to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. The OU Board of Regents approved the expansion during its meeting Tuesday. Illustration provided.

The OU Board of Regents considered two fine arts projects funded and promoted by members of the board at its meeting Tuesday in the Oklahoma Memorial Union.

The elevation of the musical theater program from a department to a school and an expansion of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art were both approved Tuesday at the regents’ final meeting of the year.

The art museum will be updated and expanded to allow more room for the display of OU’s current collection and the enlargement of the collection, which is already one of the most valuable in the country.

The renovations were planned to coincide with the creation of a new gallery for the Adkins Collection, a collection of Taos and Native American art that the university received in July 2007

OU Board of Regents Chairman Jon Stuart made the project possible with a $3 million gift from the Stuart Family Foundation, according to OU President David L. Boren.

“Once again, when the university needed support for an important project, Jon and Dee Dee Stuart have come forward,” Boren said.

The renovations will cost a total of $13 million. Stuart’s $3 million “lead gift” will be supplemented with $6 million in one-time funding from the university’s discretionary reserves.

The remaining $4 million needed for the project will come from smaller gifts from private donors.

Boren said construction of the new facility will not require the university to borrow money. He is currently in conversations with prospective donors who might cover the final $4 million.

The expansion will add an additional 18,000 square feet to the museum. Some of that square footage will come from enclosing the rooftop sculpture garden to create a new gallery. It will also create space for the Adkins Collection and a new staircase leading to the galleries.

Construction on the new section of the museum will begin in late spring or summer 2009 and is expected to be completed within 18 months. Most of the museum will be able to remain open throughout the renovation, Boren said.

The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art has grown significantly in the past decade. More than 80 percent of its collection was acquired in the last 15 years. The value of the collection puts it among the top three or four most valuable university art collections in the country, Boren said.

The regents also approved a recommendation to elevate the Weitzenhoffer Department of Musical Theatre to the Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre.

“This will be the only school of musical theater in the United States, which will be a very big boon to our recruiting,” OU Regent Max Weitzenhoffer said.

OU already is home to one of the most selective musical theater programs in the United States.

“We pick about one out of 10 who audition to come to musical theater, and we have a reputation as being in the top two or three in the nation,” Boren said.

The department’s new designation as a school won’t involve any major program or curriculum changes, but Boren said the elevation in title will “recognize the excellence of the program.”