12/17/2023 0 Comments Philadelphia art museum architectureThe work of Philadelphia artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase is displayed in the new contemporary art galleries at Philadelphia Museum of Art. It opens this weekend with “New Grit: Art and Philly Now,” a show of 25 artists either currently living in Philadelphia, originally from the city, or with strong ties here. You have to know that that object was made in a workshop that had enslaved workers in it.”Īcross the forum from the new American gallery is the new contemporary space, a large series of galleries dedicated to work by living artists. “We also are telling the story of slavery, which sometimes is invisible in the objects that you’ll see. We have a whole section that draws out that story,” she said. “Philadelphia has always been a very big community of free Black artists, artists, and artisans. The new American galleries expand what Foster is able to show - including furniture, silverwork, and paintings - and the stories she is able to tell, including stories of Black Philadelphia. The original American galleries are still where they always have been in the museum. The wall text accompanying the portraits explains the resulting Walking Treaty was used by the sons of Penn to defraud the tribe out of land. The portraits were painted in 1735 as part of the Lenape’s negotiations with the sons of William Penn over land. Now, at the entrance of the new American galleries, visitors immediately come face-to-face with a pair of painted portraits of Lenape leaders Lapowinsa and Tishcohan. “We were determined to have the representation of the original people in the Delaware Valley, of the Lenape people.” We have never had that as part of the PMA’s collection, so we had to go out and get some loans,” Foster said. “The big addition is the art of Indigenous people. Kathleen Foster, senior curator of American art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, says new galleries will emphasize Native American, Latino American and African American contributions. It could not be done in a serious way until the building was ripped apart and put back together because more space was needed. Senior curator Kathleen Foster said when she was hired almost 20 years ago by then-director Anne d’Harnoncourt, one of the goals was to update the American art galleries. The Core Project was also a moment to tackle other, long-overdue projects in the museum. “A very significant investment in the project was in technology, infrastructure, replacement of antiquated building systems, and sustainability initiatives that will serve us well into the future.” “You’ll notice the changes, but at the same time, a vast amount of the very dramatic changes are below the floor, behind the walls, and above the ceiling,” Harrity said. Its main job, however, is as a thoroughfare, to move people north to south, and between levels. It can be used for events and performances. The central forum, called the Williams Forum, is not an art gallery per se, although it is big enough to host very large sculptural pieces, and its walls are outfitted with mounting racks for hanging artwork. Gail Harrity, president and chief operating officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art since 2009, calls the completion of the interior expansion the capstone of her career at the museum. “So what he has done … is to remove an auditorium that was not ADA-compliant, not built for 21st-century programming, and create this new public gathering space, which will serve multiple purposes.” “ often says, it’s the cork in the bottle that needed to come out,” said Gail Harrity, the museum chief operating officer who is stepping down now that the Core Project is complete. Gehry decided that what was jamming up the space was the auditorium, built in 1959 in the center core, blocking an intuitive way to get across the building. The museum could be difficult to navigate, as visitors easily lost their sense of direction winding through the horseshoe-shaped building. The renovation needed to solve a few problems. As a result, it appears the corridor, forum, and galleries have always been there. Gehry deferred to their century-old decisions, even sourcing the stone for the walls and floors from the same quarry in Minnesota. Gehry took great care to make the new interior space seamless with the rest of the classically appointed Art Museum, designed in the 1920s by Horace Trumbauer, Julian Abele, Paul Cret, Clarence Zantzinger, and Charles Borie Jr. The renovations do not have any of the disruptive stylistic flair Gehry is often associated with, like the eye-popping geometric shapes of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain and Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. WHYY thanks our sponsors - become a WHYY sponsor
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