Museum Development and Expansion
Today, many museums are following the Guggenheim example. They are being designed by world-class architects so that the building itself is a work of art. For example, Pritzker Prize-winner Renzo Piano has been contracted to design the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, and it is not his only museum project in recent years; and Moshe Safdie is the architect behind Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art founded by Alice Walton in Bentonville, Arkansas. The benefit of these designs, other than their aesthetic appeal, is that they encourage local community activities and business events, and attract out-of-towners. Besides the potential effect museums have on the economy, art donors may also view this breed of newer, more structurally aesthetic museums as preferable places to house paintings and other artifacts. As a result, older and lesser-known museums are forced to renovate, remodel, or relocate in order to compete with new and newly expanded museums for the art and business they hope to keep and continue to attract.
Although building or expanding a museum can be expensive, the result can be an economic boom that more than pays for the cost. This is just as true in a small town as it is in a big city, and sometimes the small town reaps even more of a benefit. For example, Renzo Piano's redesign of the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art may be no more influential than the expanded park being integrated into North Carolina's Museum of Art or Moshe Safdie graceful design for Alice Walton and the pastorally-located Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. After all, not only do museums provide a place to preserve, display, and educate people about art, science, and history, but they also become community hubs where people host events, sponsor programs, and encourage community activity. In smaller, less populated regions, these kinds of centers are more needed, and sometimes singular in nature.
Over the next few years, a surge in new museums and museum expansions can be expected to sweep the nation. Within a few years, at least half a dozen museums will open to the public, some brand new and others with significant remodels and additions. Compiled here are a number of press releases gathered from these museums that explain their construction, the scope of the project, and what these museums will mean for their surrounding communities. Museums for which this information could be found include the Art Institute of Chicago, North Carolina's Museum of Art, Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges, the Parrish Art Museum, the West Edge and Advertising Icon Museum, the Art Museum of Western Virginia, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. As far as building development is concerned, these museums and others like them will most likely benefit the regions where they are placed, socially and economically as well as culturally. As such, the recent explosion of museum development and expansion can only be viewed as a good thing.
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