AND REBUILD URIS CENTER FOR EDUCATION
Museum Expands 'Fund for the Met' Capital Campaign to 900 Million
(NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 24, 2004)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced plans to launch—and fund—a series of milestone 21st-Century Met interior construction projects aimed at dramatically enhancing the Museum's displays of Hellenistic and Roman art, Etruscan art, Islamic art, 19th-century art, modern art, and modern photography. Additionally, the major new "building-from-within" program will substantially upgrade the Museum's Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education, the traditional welcoming point of entry for some 125,000 school visitors each year. To finance the projects, the Museum announced a new plan to complete private funding for the construction and rehabilitation work.
Announcement of these 21st-Century Met projects was made by Museum Director Philippe de Montebello this morning at a press conference held inside one of the most beloved interior spaces in the institution—the recently closed, longtime Museum Restaurant, located on the first floor at the south end of the main Fifth Avenue building. Under the comprehensive plans unveiled today, Mr. de Montebello announced, this area will now be overhauled and converted back to gallery space so that the Met's vast collection of classical art—considered one of the finest in the world—can again be displayed here in a new Leon Levy and Shelby White Court for Roman and Etruscan Art and surrounding galleries. Until 1949, the sky-lit space, designed and built by McKim, Mead and White between 1914 and 1926, had served as the Museum's principal gallery for Roman sculpture.
All of the new "building-from-within" projects announced today will take place on the south end of the Museum. Construction will begin shortly on the Court for Roman and Etruscan Art (scheduled to open to the public in spring 2007) as well as on the Uris Center for Education, which will remain open and fully functioning, at somewhat reduced levels of capacity, while work goes forward.
To finance these projects and create an endowment to support them, the Museum further announced that its Fund for the Met capital campaign, after meeting and exceeding its most recent goal of $650 million, would expand its goal by $250 million to a new total of $900 million. The Met has already raised private funds for half the cost of the core and shell of the new Roman sculpture court, construction of which will begin immediately. The balance of construction costs for the new Roman project also will be raised privately.
Commented Mr. de Montebello: "Determined never to become a museum of itself, yet at the same time cognizant of its longtime commitment to undertake no expansion beyond its current footprint, the Metropolitan is charting a future based on the best possible use of its magnificent interior spaces in the fullest service of its collections and its public. The new galleries that will be built from within will reopen to visitors some of the most majestic spaces in its landmark building, and, of vast significance, permit the institution's outstanding collection of Hellenistic, Roman, and Etruscan art—long in storage—to return at last to public view in breathtaking new galleries.
"At the same time," the Director continued, "the renewal work we plan to undertake immediately below the new Roman Court will create a suitably inspiring gateway to the Museum for its youngest visitors—the museum-going public of the future—namely, the students and school groups from throughout our City and region whose proper, stimulating introduction to great art we take as a crucial aspect of our Museum mission."
"With the reinstallation of the Hellenistic, Etruscan, and Roman collection," Mr. de Montebello concluded, "and the construction of new and improved space for the display of Islamic art, 19th-century art, modern art, and modern photography, the 21st-Century Met will be able to present, more comprehensively and more authoritatively, its encyclopedic collections of art from 5,000 years of human creativity."
Commented E. John Rosenwald, Jr., Vice Chairman of the Metropolitan and Executive Chairman of The Fund for the Met: "This new phase of our capital campaign reflects the urgency of these construction and endowment projects. There is a critical need to enhance our facilities in order to best serve our many audiences and continue to fulfill our mission to educate and to inspire, all at the very highest levels. With great appreciation of our past donors, we look forward to these new challenges with enthusiasm and optimism."
David E. McKinney, President of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, noted: "The Museum will of course continue to work closely with our public officials, with City Hall and the Governor's Office, with the City Council and State Legislature, and with representatives of the surrounding community, to provide efficient, reliable, and continuous communication to them and to our public as these projects move forward. The generous support we have received from government at all levels has been invaluable to us, and we pledge, as always, to provide our constituencies with the levels of service and space they have come to expect from the Met."
THE LEON LEVY AND SHELBY WHITE COURT FOR ROMAN AND ETRUSCAN ART
The capstone of the 21st-Century Met program will be the creation of the Roman sculpture court, to be named in honor of the Museum's longtime Trustee and generous donor Shelby White, and her late husband, financier and philanthropist Leon Levy.
For half a century, the Museum has been using this vast gallery—designed and originally used to exhibit Roman art—for other purposes. In 1950, the Museum converted the space in the southeast corner of the building into a public restaurant, to which a cafeteria was later added. The Museum closed this facility in June 2003, relocating its kitchen facilities and opening a highly popular new public cafeteria on the ground floor of the institution, directly beneath the Medieval Sculpture Hall, west of the Great Hall. To date, this new facility has attracted more than 300,000 diners, and has been augmented by the opening of small new satellite cafes along the Central Park curtain walls in both the Carroll and Milton Petrie European Sculpture Court and The Charles Engelhard Court of the American Wing.
This new decentralization of Museum dining facilities has liberated the old restaurant space for its long-planned and widely anticipated conversion back to a gallery for Hellenistic and Roman art—a goal first envisioned in the 1970 master plan, and advanced when the Museum launched its Greek and Roman Master Plan in the early 1990s. Leading to the current construction phase, the Metropolitan opened its widely praised constellation of galleries for classical art beginning eight years ago: Cycladic and early Greek art galleries in 1996, and its new Greek and Cypriot art galleries in 1999 and 2000, respectively.
The southern wing that these galleries occupy—and which will now be rehabilitated to house the new Roman Court—was originally designed by McKim, Mead and White to evoke the architecture of the ancient Roman world. The new redesign and reinstallation plans unveiled today are faithful to their original design concept, but will also provide a grand and imperial setting for the Museum's collection of Roman sculpture. The interior skylight roof will be raised to accommodate a two-tier façade of limestone columns and pilasters in both the Doric and Ionic styles, and the long-shuttered windows along the southernmost wall (in what until recently was the restaurant kitchen) will be exposed after more than 50 years to provide light and stature to the space and its works of art.
Although examples from its vast resource of Hellenistic and Roman art have been on public view since the Metropolitan opened its doors in 1870, a large percentage of exceptionally fine works has necessarily remained in storage, or rotated between storage and limited gallery space when possible, due to a lack of adequate permanent exhibition space. The creation of the Museum's new Leon Levy and Shelby White Court for Roman and Etruscan Art will provide a grand stage for a comprehensive installation of the largest selection of these works ever shown at the Met.
It will include portraits of famous—and infamous—Roman emperors, including Augustus, Caligula, and Antoninus Pius, as well as a display of Roman funerary sculpture, featuring the highly ornate Badminton Sarcophagus with its depiction of the triumph of the god Dionysus. Architectural fragments from the emperor Domitian's palace on the Palatine in Rome will also be displayed here for the first time in many years.
To free maximum space for use for the display of art, the Museum announced as well that it will construct above the new Roman Court, around the perimeter of the gallery yet all but invisible to the public either inside or outside the building, interior office space to house curatorial and administrative staff.
ADJACENT GALLERIES FOR CLASSICAL ART
The newly planned installations will also be designed to present, in adjacent spaces, as well as in galleries one flight above, a substantial number of works from the Museum's rich collection of Hellenistic art, and the arts of South Italy and Sicily, whose display will provide a vital artistic and historical link between the Greek and the new Roman galleries. Of particular interest will be a new Hellenistic Treasury, to be constructed on the first floor just outside the new Roman Court.
The galleries along Fifth Avenue will be the new setting for the Museum's collection of wall paintings from the Roman villas excavated at Boscoreale and Boscotrecase, unquestionably the finest examples of their type outside of Italy. They include the Cubiculum (or bedroom) from Boscoreale, which will be installed at the center of the wing, alongside the other panels from the same villa. It will thus be possible for the first time in generations for visitors to view these masterpieces in the proper context of sculpture, bronzes, and other arts of the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods.
To complete this complementary exhibition space, the Museum will convert onetime executive offices located on its mezzanine level (just above and around the Roman Court) into additional spaces to house public galleries. The southern end, to feature an expansive new balcony that will overlook the new Roman Court, will be devoted to Etruscan art. It will feature as its centerpiece one of the great works in the Museum's collections, its world-famous Etruscan chariot, now undergoing a major restoration preparatory to its return to permanent public view for the first time since the early 1990s.
Finally, the eastern-most space on the mezzanine level will be redesigned to house an open study collection gallery, where a large proportion of the remaining Greek, Cypriot, and Roman collections will be placed on view. Nearby space will be set aside for a small special exhibitions gallery for classical art—to feature rotating shows drawn from the department's own collections of antiquities and archival materials, as well as works lent by other institutions and private collections.
The redesign and reinstallation is being supervised by Carlos A. Picón, Curator in Charge, Department of Greek and Roman art, with the assistance of Christopher Lightfoot, Associate Curator for Roman Art, as well as other members of the curatorial staff—Seán Hemingway, Joan Mertens, Elizabeth Milleker—and Collections Coordinator William Gagen.
GALLERIES FOR ISLAMIC ART
The Metropolitan announced plans to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the construction of the Hellenistic and Roman Galleries—which has necessitated the temporary closing of exhibition space located in the same wing—to renovate its nearby, 30-year-old Islamic Art Galleries.
The galleries housing this collection, widely considered one of the greatest and most comprehensive such holdings in the Western world, will be enlarged,
completely redesigned, and reinstalled to provide the most advanced and attractive display settings when the works return to public view in late 2007 or early 2008. (Until then, a small selection of collection highlights will be on view, on a rotating basis, along the south bay of the balcony of the Museum's Great Hall, and in other locations throughout the Museum). The 12,000 objects—including paintings, calligraphy, ceramics, textiles, glass, and metalwork—date from the 7th to 19th century, and come from as far west as Spain and Morocco, and as far east as Central Asia and India.
Commented Mr. de Montebello: "Given the current geopolitical situation, and the increased interest in Islamic art, this is an unfortunate moment to announce the temporary closing of the Met's Islamic Galleries. But I am extremely proud that so many of the finest works from this department will remain on view—either on the Great Hall balcony or imbricated throughout the Museum in the galleries of other curatorial departments."
The project will include the installation of new lighting and climate control systems, and conservation of the Syrian period room and the Emperor's Carpet.
The redesign and reinstallation of the Islamic Art Galleries is being supervised by Daniel Walker, Curator in Charge, Department of Islamic Art, with the assistance of members of his curatorial staff, including Stefano Carboni, Navina Haidar, and Maryam Ekhtiar.
RUTH AND HAROLD D. URIS CENTER FOR EDUCATION
The Museum will rebuild and renew its Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education—the core of discovery and learning at the Metropolitan—transforming its ground-floor entry and public spaces in order to provide its school visitors, school and adult groups, teacher training groups, disabled visitors, and the general public a welcome worthy of the transforming experience awaiting them in the galleries.
Toward this goal, the Met announced plans to build new student orientation areas, and a state-of-the-art auditorium seating 300 to replace its recently closed Uris Center auditorium. Also to be built are new classrooms, lockers, checkroom facilities, a multipurpose art studio, and a climate-controlled art study room where curators can teach, using original works from the collections. The completely renovated Uris Center will also feature an enhanced
and more accessible visitor library, and improved reception areas that properly prepare groups and individual visitors for their experience with the extraordinary collections.
"Just as the Great Hall, designed by Richard Morris Hunt more than a century ago, inspires wonder and expectation," Mr. de Montebello said, "the public spaces at 81st Street will also convey the dignity and distinction of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. For all visitors have a right to encounter our collections and exhibitions in the most inspiring manner, and deserve to be honored by their visit."
Building of the renewed Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education—as well as management of the temporary Uris Center, which opened on February 10 and is now welcoming visitors—is supervised by Kent Lydecker, the Museum's Associate Director for Education.
GALLERIES FOR 19th-CENTURY ART, MODERN ART,
AND MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY
In a related interior construction project—again inspired by the "building-from-within" opportunities made possible by ongoing work at the southern end of the Museum—the Metropolitan announced a plan to add some 9,000 square feet of much-needed new gallery space directly above its Oceanic galleries, just south of, and contiguous to, its second-floor galleries for 19th-century European painting and sculpture.
The new gallery space will enable the Museum to properly install and present to the public its collections of modern photography, and provide vital, additional exhibition space for 19th-century art and modern art.
In turn, once the new floor is completed, the Metropolitan will undertake yet another comprehensive reinstallation project: that of its collections of the arts of Oceania.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: THE AMERICAN WING
AND THE CLOISTERS
The Metropolitan is also developing plans to renovate the American Wing and reinstall a significant portion of its American art collections. The work is expected to encompass creation of several new galleries for American paintings and sculpture as well as new spaces for decorative arts; improvement of the display
of works in silver, ceramics, and glass on the balcony of The Charles Engelhard Court, and reconfiguration of the sculpture as well as the architectural design of the Engelhard Court itself. A major goal of the plan will be to improve public access to, and visitor flow within, the American Wing galleries.
At The Cloisters, the Metropolitan's branch museum for Medieval art and architecture, overlooking the Hudson River in Fort Tryon Park, the institution will continue a building preservation project to stabilize the structure, add and modernize climate control systems, upgrade the original lighting system, conserve the extensive collection of stained glass windows, and renovate the Late Gothic Hall, the Glass Gallery, and the Gothic Chapel.
'BUILDING FROM WITHIN': A METROPOLITAN MUSEUM TRADITION
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has conducted an ambitious series of interior construction and renovation projects over the past decade, in a concerted effort to devote as much precious space as possible to the display of art for the visiting public.
Recent highlights of this program have included: the opening of the new exhibition gallery for European sculpture and decorative arts just east of the Robert Lehman Wing (currently housing the installation Chocolate, Coffee, Tea); creation of an intimate new exhibition space in the "crypt" beneath the grand staircase that leads from the Great Hall to the second-floor European galleries; and installation of the long-unseen intarsia masterpiece, the Gubbio Studiolo, in an under-utilized space on the Museum's first floor.
The Museum also pointed to creation of the Robert Wood Johnson, Jr. Gallery for prints, drawings, and photographs, in the long hallway leading from the European Paintings Galleries to the 19th-Century European Painting and Sculpture Galleries; the opening of new Chinese and Korean art galleries, as well as the Florence and Herbert Irving Galleries for South and Southeast Asian Art; the creation of the Antonio Ratti Textile Center; the opening of the Deedee Wigmore Galleries in The American Wing; the renovation and reinstallation of the Vélez Blanco Patio (formerly the Blumenthal Patio) near the Great Hall; and, earlier, the redesign and reinstallation of the 19th-Century European Painting and Sculpture galleries themselves, including nine galleries devoted to the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces from the Annenberg Collection, now on permanent, full-time view at the Museum.
In recent years, the Metropolitan has also created new Greek and Roman storerooms, Greek and Roman departmental offices, and the Onassis Library for Hellenic and Roman Art.
Most recently, the Museum on January 28 opened its comprehensively re-designed and reinstalled galleries for Old Kingdom Egyptian art, including the dramatically re-presented ancient Tombs of Perneb and Raemkai (re-opening to the public in mid-May), long one of the Metropolitan's most popular visitor destinations.
"Such a constellation of projects reflects our determination to devote as much space as architectural ingenuity can fashion—obvious and hidden alike—in further fulfillment of our mission to educate and enlighten our public at the highest museological level," said Mr. de Montebello.
All of the "21st-Century Met" renovation projects announced today are being overseen by Jeffrey L. Daly, the Metropolitan Museum's Chief Designer, under a plan created by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, the Metropolitan's longtime architects.
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