Over the hill and around the bend hide master painters Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali and Edgar Degas. The visit doesn't require plane fare, cab fare or a ticket. It's time for you to meet the masters - without leaving Miami University.

Despite growing up in an era where visual stimulation ranks supreme, the majority of Miami students will admit they have never stepped foot into the Miami Art Museum, and many haven't thought about going.

Museum Director Robert Wicks said he thinks museums have a bad rap with the young adult age group.

"I think a lot of people think of an old and decrepit building when they hear the word museum," Wicks said. "That and we're centrally isolated."

Frankly speaking, it's not dressed in red brick, it's on the edge of campus and everyone's just going to school to get a degree and move on with their lives, right? Unfortunately for the museum, this is just the mindset that has kept it from getting the attention it deserves from the student body.

Maggie May Marcum, a senior sports studies major, said the museum isn't interesting for her.

"I haven't had much time to go, and it doesn't have to do with my major, so I'm just not that interested in going," Marcum said.

Senior diplomacy and foreign affairs major Mikey Spangler said he agrees. Though, after learning the museum has works by Dali, Picasso and Warhol, both said they are much more interested in going.

Despite the slight disinterest in art from many of Miami's students, the museum does have the artistic legitimacy to be appreciated. The problem, Wicks said, is that most students don't know this.

200 at 200

With 16,000 pieces in the permanent collection, the Miami University Art Museum is one of the few university museums to be accredited by the American Association of Museums, putting it in the same category as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Because of space limitations, however, there is never enough room to accommodate all the art pieces at one time.

Currently, the museum has a "200 at 200" exhibit to honor Miami's bicentennial. The exhibit is showcasing 200 objects from their permanent collection, organized into three feature exhibitions and two study galleries. Each of the exhibitions offers a different conceptual framework throughout a variety of time periods, locations of origin, artistic materials and techniques.

Current classics

The first feature exhibition, titled "Ring of truth," focuses on how our ideas of "truth" are represented and implied visually. It features landscape paintings, self-portraits and photography. The second exhibition, "Compositions in black and white," includes an abundance of objects that portray not just the colors of black and white, but also the symbolic and metaphoric uses of those colors. Lastly, the "Figure and Form" exhibition, which has a newly acquired Edgar Degas piece called "The Seated Ballerina", displays works that demonstrate how the human figure is used to tell stories, symbolize existence and represent human condition.

Creating and organizing these exhibits is all up to Curator Lena Vigna.

"For Figure and Form, I looked at the way the body was drawn or formed with different mediums, and picked objects to represent it that way … Basically, I think about what I would want to see and then hope that it's what others would like too," Vigna said.

The three exhibitions will be on display until Dec. 12, at which point they will be replaced with three more new exhibitions. Two study galleries are in the back of the museum with more permanent works by renowned artists like Dali.

"For the way I'm allowed to curate, it's a creative act," Vigna said. "Anyone else would pick different objects to put on display. I get to show my voice through the set up … all I can hope is that even just one person will connect with a piece, and it will change them in some way."

The Challenge

Vigna said she, too, sees the struggles the museum faces with its lack of popularity among students and although many art professors take their classes to the museum for a more hands-on experience, there is still a lack of diversity in the people that visit.

"I would love to have a business or economics teacher come in here and do something with one of the pieces for their class that has never been done before," Vigna said. "Most people don't even know that if there is a specific work they want to look at, we can take it out for them to engage with."

For Art Professor Clive Getty, engaging with art is a necessity for students of every major, race, age and background.

"People should allow works of art the opportunity to speak to them," Getty said. "The visual arts constitute an important form of communication.

Getty said long before the written narrative, art was the primary mode of communication. Getty said many cave paintings done more than 15,000 years ago are prime examples.

He said art has always been a part of human experience.

"Humans have always created art in order to express themselves and to convey to others those concepts and values that they deem most important," Getty said. "As a result, it is an integral part of who we are."

Junior Will McNally has already understood Getty's point.

"People need to be able to appreciate art," McNally said. "It helps people be creative and it is a great way to see how others see the world. "

McNally said he thinks people are judgmental of the art world, both in and out of Oxford.

"Some people don't give it a chance and they probably feel like art would be even worse in a place like Oxford, Ohio," McNally said.

Wicks, along with the rest of the museum staff, has hopes the museum will become more central in the university's academic plan.

"We can't make people come to the museum," Wicks said, "but what we can do is provide people with an opportunity to see things they don't expect."