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SALT LAKE CITY — While many teenagers might spend Saturday morning playing video games, watching TV, or just sleeping in, Taylor Gregrich wanted to go to a museum.
So, the 13-year-old and her mother traveled from Tooele to Salt Lake City to visit the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.
"We would rather pay for an experience than an object that could break or do whatever, because an experience is something different," Gregrich said.
It can be easy to take museums for granted because it feels like their displays will always be there to view, but that isn't actually the case. Part of the reason Gregrich and her mother wanted to go to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts is because it is about to close for a year on Monday.
"Today is a bittersweet day for sure," said Utah Museum of Fine Arts education director Jorge Rojas.
The museum was packed for a special event Saturday, with a line starting outside before it even opened its front doors. The museum is hosting a free, two-day "Long Live Art" party before it closes for renovations.
During the renovation period, the museum will install a much needed vapor barrier humidifier system. Rojas said it will help protect all of the paintings, sculptures and other artifacts in the museum so they can be enjoyed by future generations.
Even though the museum will be closed for a year, staff members will still hold programs and community events at different locations. The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is expected to reopen in 2017.
