JandA4

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Bastian Mansion UVU Museum

Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Molly and I went to Utah Valley University's museum of art at Lakemont Manor. 
The museum occupies a huge, 40,000 square-foot mansion nestled in a residential neighborhood in Orem. I used to be in the same ward as this house. This mansion with nine bedrooms and 16 bathrooms was designed and owned by Melanie Bastian. Former wife of Bruce Bastian Who is famous for cofounding, with Alan Ashton, The company behind word, processing software, WordPerfect.  The success of WordPerfect made Bruce Bastian, one of the countries, most successful multimillionaires.
Years later, Bruce left Melanie from another man. Melanie raised their four boys in this incredible mansion. She passed away from cancer at the age of 62. Since she was such a big donor and supporter of the arts, her family donated the mansion to Utah Valley University to be used as a museum for the arts. Molly and I walked through it and were wowed by all of the beautiful architecture and artwork. It took four years to renovate the house to be a working museum, but many things were still the same as it was when it was a residential home. We loved going through it!  
























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