After years of development the UAG opened its doors to the public in 1974 in D. W. Williams Hall, a retrofitted basketball gymnasium built in 1938. In 1977, with a new art gallery formed, the administration of NMSU made the commitment to supply funds to the gallery to create and expand the NMSU Permanent Art Collection with the primary focus of forming a teaching collection for students and larger community. Two major NEA grants for the purchase of works of art by living American artists further expanded the Collection, and NMSU’s Permanent Art Collection grew by more than 2,000 objects in less than ten years. As a contemporary visual arts hub in southern New Mexico, the UAM provides enriching and informative experiences through participatory engagements with historical art, particularly its collection. In 2019 the University Art Museum (previously the UAG) moved its culturally significant art collection from its location in D. W. Williams Hall to a state-of-the-art, fully climate controlled, 21st century museum facility in the newly constructed Devasthali Hall. The new museum offers public access to the incredible permanent collection, now drawing from 2,000 nineteenth-century Mexican retablos, still the largest collection in the United States, more than 1,700 modern and contemporary works, and the Don Gonzales Collection, a collection of ninety World War I and II era propaganda posters.