UNLV’s Barrick Museum has been through a lot of changes during the past year: losing its funding, raising money to support itself as an art museum and now becoming part of the College of Fine Arts.

Now comes word it will shut its doors January 8 and remain closed until late spring, while officials reconfigure the space.

This comes less than a month after the museum fell under the wings of the College of Fine Arts, when its dean, Jeff Koep, said to expect synergy between Barrick and the college’s Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery. Additionally, university officials have been meeting with board members of the Las Vegas Art Museum, which closed in February 2009, in an effort to bring the LVAM collection to the campus, but has yet to make any announcements on that front.

Before the budget cuts, announced this year, the Barrick, formerly a natural history museum, was overseen by the Division of Research and Graduate Studies.

Barrick will shut its doors at the January 8 closing of Exploring Photographic Alternatives.