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The Columbus Museum of Art is currently undergoing a major renovation and expansion project that will add approximately 45,000 new square feet of space and overhaul many of the galleries, the auditorium and Derby Court.
The museum is still open to the public during renovation and is still featuring their Chihuly Illuminated exhibit through July 4th.
Below are some construction photos taken on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010. The project is scheduled to be completed on January 1st, 2011.
More construction photos can be found on the CMA Flickr Page and more information about the construction can be found online at ColumbusMuseum.org.
Really excited about this. Looking forward to the finished product.
I was there a few months ago and was disappointed in the amount of space they had left during the construction. Hopefully after this is complete it will have been worth it!
these are really neat pictures, can’t wait to see it when it’s all done too!
I’m so glad they are giving themselves more space. The museum has never been able to display anywhere close to half its collection – so this will be a huge plus. Can’t wait to see the end product!
I have been paying attention to this project since it was announced.
Back then the addition/expansion was suppose to be in the current visitor parking lot. Does anyone know where they are planning to build the 40,000 sq ft. addition now?
The museum seems very quiet on the expansion and rather focused on the renovation.
Thanks.
I really miss eating at the Palette.I love their soups.
For comparative purposes only, the Cleveland Art Museum expansion will increase it to nearly 600,000 square feet – nearly 4 times the Columbus Art Museum after its expansion. The following link generally shows how far behind Columbus remains in the cultural arts area. Moreover, today’s Dispatch lauds the city’s accomplishment of rendering our orchestra part-time, performing from it peak of 48 weeks to less than half the year (25 weeks) and reducing musician wages from $52,000 to less than $38,000 and cautioning against paying too much for finding a director to actually lead the orchestra in the future. Go figure!
http://www.columbusmuseum.org/about/news.php?id=7
Quote:”For comparative purposes only, the Cleveland Art Museum expansion will increase it to nearly 600,000 square feet – nearly 4 times the Columbus Art Museum after its expansion. The following link generally shows how far behind Columbus remains in the cultural arts area.”
Ja. Really now. Must we compare to cities in the same region but with completely different histories?
One should not ignore Cleveland’s industrial growth and hence wealth that supports its organizations. This type of wealth accumulation, and subsequent reinvestment into cultural institutions, does not occur at the same rate as during the boom of eastern/Midwestern cities.
Further, this leaves Columbus “behind” but simply at a different stage of cultural development and in a completely different economic era. For a city of our size, and a later developer on the national stage, we are doing just fine.
Not every city (of under 2 million metro) has the array of institutions we do. IE: The Wexner Center for the Arts (which boasts everything from live acts, to international films, to galleries), and a full city ballet/opera/symphony/local theater companies/many national tours/ jazz orchestras/numerous renovated performance spaces all over the city/and many more organizations.
You beat me to it Seanguy. I can’t speak to the specifics of each institution, but I’ve always been under the impression that the great museums of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, and even Youngstown were born mostly of extraordinary Gilded-Age philanthropy. Individuals in the late 19th and early 20th Century made huge fortunes in transportation, steel, and other heavy industries. These same individuals then turned part of their fortunes toward funding all manner of cultural institutions.
Columbus wasn’t that type of city, and consequently didn’t reap the same rewards. We’ve had neither the “old money” of these other cities nor the long history of cultural philanthropy. Ironically, having a different economic base has positioned us better than many other Ohio cities in the new millennium. A reliance on heavy industry (the thing that once funded those great museums) has left places like Youngstown, Toledo, and Cleveland in a much more difficult position as those industries left.
Speaking as a Clevelander, trust me, Columbus is much more on the upswing and Cleveland is in a decline culturally.
There are more pictures linked to this story:
From the Dispatch…
Museum of Art almost ready to unveil renovation
By Jeffrey Sheban
What does a yearlong $6.9 million renovation buy?
For the Columbus Museum of Art, time to prepare for the next phase of work: a $30 million expansion that will take up to three years to complete.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2010/12/19/ew-year-new-look.html?sid=101