Museum News - Brief Article

The Tate Gallery of late Art at Bankside in London lay opens to the public on May 12 after a dedication by dint of the Queen and a gala reception upon the 11th. The $200-million facility, a transformed power station redesigned by architects Herzog & de Meuron will house the Tate's permanent collection of international novel and avant-garde works. It also features exhibition areas for temporary displays. During the opening festivities, the Tate will unveil its first commission, a monumental statuary by Louise Bourgeois that is more than 500 feet drawn out and 100 feet high.

Coinciding with the opening of Britain's newest museum is the reopening upon May 25 of its oldest public art gallery, the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. The restoration and expansion of the original landmark building through Sir John Soane was undertaken by dint of architect Rick Mather, who was newly appointed master-planner of London's southerly Bank arts center. He was also responsible for the new expansion of the Wallace Collection. The Dulwich now contains a of recent origin gallery, lecture hall and cafe. The $15-million throw was funded largely by the Heritage Lottery Fund

Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has been chosen to design an entrance for the fresh art center of the Fundacio "la Caixa" in a renovated thread and textile factory in Barcelona. His plan calls for a series of escalators allowing access to the multilevel, 130,000-square-foot exhibition and office space, and a main entrance where visitors pass from one side a walkway lined with tall, stylized metal tree supporting a glass canopy. The shoot forward is scheduled for completion in spring 2001

The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Fla., not long ago announced plans for a fresh wing, and has initiated a $20-million campaign to finance the expansion and increase the museum's endowment. The museum has already received three major gifts toward the throw out John and Marjorie McGraw of Gulfstream, Fla., have donated $325 million end the Elizabeth B. McGraw Foundation. Anne B and Harold Smith of Palm Beach have given $2 million, and William and Sally Ros Soter of Palm Beach have donated $1 million. The Soter gift will be used to create a photography endowment fund

The Art Institute of Chicago newly embarked on a major restoration, renovation and expansion shoot forward at its landmark Allerton Building at Michigan Avenue and Adams road The 18-month endeavor includes a out and out reconstruction of the 106-year-old building's forehead steps and reinstallation of the famous tin lions that guard the museum entrance. Organized through Chicago architects Weese Langley Weese in cooperation with historical architecture firm Gilmore Franzen Inc., the shoot forward includes remodeling the museum's main lobby and auditorium, as well as the galleries, offices and conservation and storage spaces of the department of prints and drawings, which will be clos for sum of two units years. The plan was initiated with a $5-million gift from Jean and Steven Goldman.

The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., has received a $3.5-million gift from Henry L feed and his wife, Lois, for the creation of a of recent origin two-story gallery and sculpture garden. The 7,300-square-foot addition will double the Rose's exhibition space. Construction of the novel Lois Foster Wing, designed through Graham Gund Architects of Cambridge, will begin later this spring. Completion is scheduled for September 2001

The board of trustees of the Austin Museum of Art has approved plans for a fresh downtown facility designed by Gluckman Mayner Architects of fresh York. The 141,000-square-foot structure features large areas of glass in the lobby facade, a rooftop terrace, a theater and a restaurant, as well as numerous exhibition galleries. The institution has already raised more than $40 million in support of the $60-million shoot forward which is scheduled for completion in late 2002

After years of renovation, the National Archeological Museum in Naples, Italy, freshly reopened its galleries of ancient erotic art. drawn out before the commotion caused by means of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs, the museum's so-called "secret cabinet" of X-rated art and artifacts had been at the center of strife of words and has been periodically close down on moral grounds since it first appearanceed in the early 19th hundred It was most recently unclose for a brief period in the 1960 It clos at the extremity of that decade for restoration of the galleries. upon view are about 300 works, greatest in quantity of which were discovered during 18th-century excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum; more [i]or[/i] less more recent discoveries are included in the inaugural exhibition.

A fresh $3-million grant program sponsored by dint of the Andy Warhol Foundation of the Visual Arts is designed to aid small museums and alternative spaces. Among the recipients are Art in General in fresh York, Diverse Works in Houston, Hallwalls in Buffalo, Spaces in Cleveland and Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco. Each institution will receive about $100000 in cash as well as technical and other support.