The art lab will be located at 565 E Grand River Ave.

The grand opening weekend will be from May 19-20, alongside the East Lansing Art Festival. Exhibitions in the lab's gallery will be curated using works from the Broad's 7,500-piece collection, as well as feature a studio where the public will have a place to make art. There will be lectures and film series at this new location as well.

The work displayed in the gallery will be less contemporary and more historical, Deputy Director of the Broad Art Museum Bill Matt said. The art lab is free to students and the community. It is a place where art is valued, Matt said. 

The lab will be a place for experimentation and a testing ground for trying several different things from technology to lighting, Matt said. He said they will be experimenting with different kinds of art and different approaches.  

The art lab will potentially be collaborating with MSU Arts and Cultural Management program — a graduate studies program that provides students with skills for jobs in arts and cultural organizations. 

“We hope to have graduate assistants that are excited to work in an immersive environment, managing the art lab,” Matt said. “We are working with the College of Arts and Letters now to try to implement this for the fall of 2018.” 

If they collaborate, graduates will run certain portions of the art lab, Arts and Cultural Management Interim Director Kirk Domer said.

There are two different tracks in this program: management and museum studies. Graduates in this program participate in internships, and this would provide a different venue and another opportunity for them to practice their craft before the graduate, Domer said. 

“It provides another opportunity for programming and community engagement for the regular community to be a part of it,” Domer said. “They can have events there, they can have their classroom space there, participate in different classroom sessions. It kind of bridges that gap one more time between the university and the community at large.”

Domer said during a meeting with others affiliated with the arts, everyone in attendance seemed genuinely excited and welcoming of this new development. 

“The more art opportunities to provide the community as a whole, the more vibrant the arts community will be,” Domer said. 

Matt said the art lab is a unique experience that will attract more candidates to come to MSU. 

“We are thrilled to partner with the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum and MSUFCU to bring the Broad collection with its Kresge heritage further out into the community,” said Christopher Long, dean of the College of Arts and Letters, according to a press release. "Access has always been the heart of the MSU land-grant mission and the liberal arts endeavor at its core, so this gift advances that mission by providing more members of our community with educational opportunities to be transformed by the power of art.”