CSULB Art Museum Set to Open : Remodeling: Three shows will mark the Tuesday unveiling of the new 8,000-square-foot facility in the west wing of the North Campus Library.

The top-ranked art museum in the Cal State system, hidden away since 1984 in temporary galleries on the fifth floor of the main university library, finally has a permanent, more accessible new home.

The 8,000-square-foot University Art Museum facility in the west wing of the North Campus Library at Cal State Long Beach opens Tuesday with three shows: a photographic installation by Belgian artist Marie-Jo Lafontaine; photographs of homeless people by Howard Schatz; and “Wall Works,” participatory installations devised by such well-known conceptual artists as Sol LeWitt, Imi Knoebel and Daniel Buren.

The new museum--one wing of a 3-year-old brick and stucco building designed by campus master planners Killingsworth, Stricker, Lindgren, Wilson & Associates--had been built specifically for library uses, not to display art. But museum director Constance W. Glenn was anxious to find a new home for her institution, which closed in December, 1992, to accommodate remodeling of the main library.

The closing was the latest blow to an institution that has weathered major funding losses along with much of the rest of the Cal State system. The museum’s 1994 operating budget is currently slightly under $1 million, down from a 1989 high of $1.5 million. With cutbacks in the full-time staff from 14 to four, Glenn now doubles as chief curator.

Her concerns about the building found a sympathetic ear in Long Beach resident Robert Gumbiner, chairman of the board of FHP International Corp, who pledged $30,000 to transform the west wing into a museum.

Although the Gumbiner gift was the largest single private donation to the remodeling project, the job also required university construction funds--lobbied for by several high-placed officials--for such initially unforeseen expenses as fire exits and handicapped access. (University officials are mum about the total cost, which Glenn says even she doesn’t know.)

While the museum hasn’t gained additional exhibition space in its new location, it is now distinguished as an entity in its own right by virtue of a prominent ground-floor location and a separate entrance. “We didn’t want any sense of being an aspect of another building,” Glenn says.

The Center Court Gallery, a ceremonial, 1,260-square-foot space demarcated by four plump columns and capped by a skylight, is surrounded by five other galleries with 12-foot ceilings and of varying sizes. A windowed, 80-foot-long expanse can be divided into two or three smaller areas (one of which is named for Gumbiner). Only one small “black box” gallery escapes the ubiquitous wash of natural light.

Shoehorned into the remaining space are a museum shop, designed by Los Angeles artist Eugenia P. Butler, and a handful of tiny offices. (Storage and workroom space have been carved out of an area at the east end of the library.)

A few vestiges of the original library design remain, including patterned gray carpeting in the central gallery--Glenn prevailed on the architects to allow bare concrete floors elsewhere--and a massive central planter buried too deeply in the ground to allow for easy removal. Glenn says it may someday serve as the base for a Nancy Graves sculpture owned by the museum. (The rest of the UAM collection consists of contemporary works of art on paper and outdoor sculptures installed at various sites on campus.)

Butler was one of three artists commissioned to make pieces for the museum garden, her fancifully ornamental bench, “Lover’s Bench for a New Millennium,” is based on William Blake’s drawings for Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” Frederick Fisher planted delicate Italian cypress and black plum trees that delineate the footprint of an outdoor “Room.” Maren Hassinger’s “Evening Shadows” is a swath of windblown vegetation made of bundles of steel cable.

Founded in 1973, the UAM was accredited in 1984 by the American Assn. of Museums. Two years later, the California Arts Council ranked the museum among the top six arts institutions in the state, calling it “a model for university museums.”

In accordance with Gumbiner’s proviso that the museum stay open evenings to accommodate working people, the UAM’s new hours will be noon to 8 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m., Friday through Sunday. Information: (310) 985-5761.