Photo by Kevin Harber.

When the Corcoran announced its plan to dissolve last year—splitting up the school and the collection to George Washington University and the National Gallery of Art respectively—it not only left many former staffers and students disgruntled, but also the University of Maryland. The two institutions had been engaged in a partnership and negotiations for months before the Corcoran ended them in favor of the GW/National Gallery deal. But the University of Maryland has bounced back, announcing today a major collaboration with the Phillips Collection.

The new partnership has been dubbed the rather unwieldy The University of Maryland Center for Art and Knowledge at The Phillips Collection. It will include the creation of a joint gallery and storage facility in Prince George’s County. “The new public facility will serve as a cutting-edge, modern and contemporary art center, hub for experimentation and innovation, and an artistic laboratory for a global community,” the institutions proclaimed in a press release.

Other aspects of the deal involve providing free admission for U-Md. students and staffers to the Phillips, co-presenting a new music series, supporting at least two postdoctoral fellowships at the Phillips, digitizing the museum’s archive, and boosting the university’s arts education opportunities.

“Not only does it provide access to this priceless collection, but it brings a new vigor to our arts education, and to the entire campus,” University of Maryland President Wallace D. Loh said. We are genuinely a STEAM university—Science-Technology-Engineering-Arts-Math.”