![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It is critically important not only for one of this city’s most significant cultural assets, but also for the future of the city. Leslie Anne Miller, Chair of the museum’s Board of Trustees, notes, “This is an investment in Philadelphia. In addition, Senga Nengudi: Topologies, the first major special exhibition to be presented in the museum in more than a year, will be on view in the Dorrance Galleries, and the Rodin Museum will reopen to the public for the first time since March 2020. To celebrate the completion of the Core Project, the museum will welcome visitors on a special pay-what-you-wish basis, starting Friday, May 7, through Monday, May 10, the historic date when the museum first opened to the public in 1877. Dietrich II Galleries, focusing on the creative spirit of Philadelphia today, presents an exhibition of the work of 25 contemporary artists with ties to the city and speaks to many of the most pressing issues of our time. Galleries, is devoted to telling a broader and more inclusive narrative of the development of early American art centered on the prominent role played by Philadelphia in this story. In addition, areas once devoted to offices, the museum’s restaurant, and retail operation have been converted into two new suites of galleries totaling 20,000 square feet of exhibition space. It includes a rebuilt West Terrace, now the Robbi and Bruce Toll Terrace, with integrated ramps to facilitate access for all visitors a renovated Lenfest Hall, which has long served as the principal entrance to the museum a new public space, the Williams Forum, which will serve as the setting for a wide range of activities and will connect the ground floor of the museum to its upper levels and the Vaulted Walkway, a grand 640-foot long corridor that spans the entire breadth of the building and has not been open to the public for nearly 50 years. The scope of the Core Project comprises nearly 90,000 square feet of reimagined and newly created space within the main building, all of which is ADA compliant and energy efficient. Called the Core Project because it has focused on the renewal of the museum’s infrastructure and has opened up the very heart of the main building, its completion after four years of construction represents an enormous step forward for the museum. The Master Plan is part of a bigger effort in the “It Starts Here: Campaign for the Philadelphia Museum of Art,” which will allow the museum to “achieve ambitious goals in education and public programming, improved access and community outreach, and the innovative use of new technologies to fulfill its mission and more effectively engage the next generation of audiences, locally as well as internationally,” according to the press release.On May 7, 2021, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will unveil to the public the culmination of two decades of planning, design, and construction: a project by the celebrated architect Frank Gehry that represents a major milestone in the renovation, reorganization, and interior expansion of the museum’s landmark 1928 building. The first project was a new Art Handling Facility, which was completed in 2012. The $196 million Core Project plan added a grand total of 90,000 square feet to the 100-year-old museum and is the second part of Gehry’s three-phase Facilities Master Plan. ![]() In total, Gehry’s planned transformation involved 67,000 square feet of new public space, 11,500 square feet of gallery space and another 11,500 square feet of contemporary art display space. Also added in the interior were new classrooms, art studios, a restaurant, café, meeting rooms and new art galleries. The west terrace was rebuilt to integrate ramps to the reopened north entrance. A new staircase was also planned to pass through and connect visitors to the 640-foot-long vaulted walkway above (the repurposed loading dock). The construction-managed by LF Driscoll Company LLC-involved the removal of the museum’s auditorium, opening up a new main, multi-level space called “the Forum,” which plans to serve as a place for public gatherings. “I had just done the other, so I thought, 'Why not? Let's try.’” Last week, the Philadelphia Museum of Art unveiled to the public new galleries and public spaces from a years-long renovation led by architect Frank Gehry.Ĭourtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art ![]()
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