Los Angeles County Museum of Art - Expanding 2008
NEWS RELEASE
LACMA UNVEILS TEN-YEAR CAMPUS TRANSFORMATION
DESIGNED BY RENZO PIANO BUILDING WORKSHOP
Featuring Broad Contemporary Art Museum, opening February 2008
Los Angeles, June 2007-In February 2008, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will launch the first phase of Transformation, its comprehensive, three-phase expansion and renovation project, designed by the internationally acclaimed Renzo Piano Building Workshop. This ambitious initiative will dramatically transform LACMA's six-building, twenty-acre campus, laying a strong foundation for future growth of the Museum over the next ten years.
The highlight of the February inauguration will be the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) at LACMA, a new building with 60,000 square feet of gallery space specifically designed to exhibit contemporary art. Named in honor of LACMA Trustee and benefactor Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe Broad, BCAM is a central component of LACMA's mission to fully integrate contemporary art into the museum's collecting strategy, exhibitions, and public programs, exploring the interplay of the art of our time with that of the past. In fact, LACMA is the first major encyclopedic museum to make contemporary art one of its principal areas of activity, a fitting role for a museum at the cultural center of Los Angeles, which has emerged in recent years as a world capital of contemporary art.
Also opening in February will be the BP Grand Entrance. This 8,100 square-foot, open-air pavilion that serves as the Museum's main entrance, orientation space, and public art plaza will offer one of the first experiences with contemporary art. Chris Burden's Urban Light, an installation of more than 200 street lamps from all over Los Angeles will illuminate the entry for visitors. Solar panels installed atop the BP Grand Entrance will provide electricity to power the massive light sculpture.
When complete, Transformation will not only improve the visitor's experience with a unified campus and new natural light-filled galleries, but it will also take into account the visitor as no encyclopedic museum has done before-by recognizing the diverse community it serves within its walls. Los Angeles residents have particularly strong ties to both Latin America and Asia, and accordingly, the museum intends to restructure its permanent collection installations to allow for these regions to be the historical lens through which the collection is viewed (as opposed to the traditional Euro-centric perspective). What's more, visitors can also choose to traverse time from the contemporary art of BCAM to modern art, continuing back to ancient art and completing the journey at the end of the Hancock Park campus at the La Brea Tar Pits.
In addition to BCAM and the BP Grand Entrance, Phase I of Transformation includes the creation of new exhibition galleries, public spaces, and gardens. Key elements include:
- The Dona S. and Dwight M. Kendall Concourse, a covered walkway linking the western and eastern sections of the 1/3-mile-long campus
- Renovation of the Ahmanson Building, featuring reinstallations and revitalizations of galleries, major refurbishments to the central atrium, and the addition of a grand staircase that will reorganize the flow of visitors through the building
- A new parking garage on two underground levels allowing for the expansion of Hancock Park and connected green spaces above ground
- Public plazas opening onto Wilshire Boulevard to the south and Hancock Park to the north
By freeing up gallery space elsewhere in the Museum, the creation of BCAM presents LACMA with the opportunity to reorganize and reinstall several major areas of its renowned permanent collection. In addition to the new BCAM galleries, major Phase I reinstallations will include:
- The Art of the Americas Building, formerly the Modern and Contemporary Building, with galleries for all art from North, Central, and South America
- Masterpiece in Focus Gallery, located on the Atrium level of the Ahmanson Building, with rotating highlights from the permanent collection
- Increased display areas for African art and modern art in the Ahmanson Building
- Various artworks and artist-designed installations sited outdoors across the campus, including works by Robert Irwin and Chris Burden
Phase II
The second phase of Transformation will complete the unification of LACMA's vast campus. It is scheduled to include expanded facilities for special exhibitions as well as the complete rehabilitation of LACMA West, the 1939, 300,000 square foot former May Company building, which will be used to create galleries, public amenities, administrative offices, and space for additional educational and public programming. LACMA will work with artists from around the world, including Jorge Pardo and James Turrell, to develop the architectural concepts that will inform many of the designs.
Phase II is anticipated to include:
- The construction of a new, free-standing, single story, 244 foot x 230 foot glass building with exhibition galleries, directly behind BCAM, featuring an open floor plan and light-filled space designed by Renzo Piano
- Additional artworks and artist-designed outdoor installations sited across the campus creating a park-like atmosphere with a Robert Irwin palm tree installation on a 20 foot grid that will be interspersed around BCAM, the Special Exhibition Pavilion, and the other buildings on LACMA's campus
- And the following improvements to LACMA West:
- Up to 20,000 square feet of additional gallery space
- Expansion of the Boone Children's Gallery, with associated workshops and programs tailored for children, young people, and families
- A video and new-media lab
- Reconfigured spaces for LACMA's library and study collections, with a goal of enhancing accessibility and use by students, scholars, and the public
- Curatorial and administrative offices
- Public amenities such as a restaurant, retail space, and bookstore
Phase III
While still in the planning stage, it is anticipated that this phase will include re-envisioning and possibly rehabilitating the buildings located on the eastern portion of the campus. Planners are working with Trustees and executive staff to explore the use of these structures for innovative displays of the permanent collection. The work completed during Phases I and II will allow for the permanent collection to remain on view during Phase III.
Fundraising
LACMA has raised nearly $200 million for Phase I of Transformation, exceeding the Museum's original goal of $150 million. Principal gifts have come from Eli and Edythe Broad, with $60 million; Lynda and Stewart Resnick, with $25 million; and BP Foundation, with $25 million. Other significant gifts include: $15 million from the County of Los Angeles, $5 million from the Riordans, and $1.6 million from The Ahmanson Foundation.
LACMA
Located in the heart of one of the world's most diverse and dynamic cultural capitals, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has a collection that includes approximately 100,000 works spanning the history of art from ancient times to the present. LACMA uses its collection and resources to provide a variety of educational and cultural experiences for the people who live in, work in, and visit Los Angeles. The Museum offers an outstanding schedule of special exhibitions, as well as lectures, classes, family activities, film programs, and musical events. In April 2006, Michael Govan became the Museum's CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director.
LACMA is open every day except Wednesdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Admission is free after 5 pm and all day on the second Tuesday of each month. For more information about LACMA, including Transformation, the public can visit lacma.org.
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Press Contacts
For additional information about Transformation, including the opening of Phase I and the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, contact Jeanne Collins or Libby Mark at Jeanne Collins & Associates, LLC, in New York City: 646-486-7050, or Barbara Pflaumer at LACMA: 323 932-5881 or bpflaumer@lacma.org.
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Additional Resources
View the official website for LACMA.
View the collection for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art online gallery.
View IgoUgo reviews of LACMA.
Frommers reviews the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as one of the finest art museums in the nation.
Read the Britannica Online Encyclopedia entry for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The Charity Navigator ratings reviews Los Angeles County Museum of Art's donations, revenue and expenses.
Edward Wyatt writes in the New York Times about Michael Goven, the director of the Los Angeles Museum of Art.
New director Michael Govan weighs in as curator of the Los Angeles Museum of Art.
Philanthropy News Digest summarizes information about the Los Angeles Museum of Art.
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