Art Museum Expanding

Associated Press

9/14/2006 9:51 PM

RALEIGH — The North Carolina Museum of Art unveiled plans Thursday for an expansion that incorporates stainless steel, glass and natural light in a plan that brings together art and nature.
The 127,000-square-foot building will be home not only to the museum’s existing permanent collection, but also casts of 22 bronze sculptures by Auguste Rodin, including “The Thinker” and “The Kiss.”
The building “is not about architectural bravado,” museum director Larry Wheeler said. “It’s not about soaring flourishes that we associate often with public buildings, in particular cultural expressions in architecture today.
“It’s a beautiful, quiet, simple place where our people can come together. They can come alone. They can find peace. They can let their spirits soar. They can nurture their own creative impulses because this is who we are. This is who we will be. This is Carolina.”
The museum is scheduled to break ground on the building in October. The opening date is spring 2009

As part of the $138 million expansion, the museum’s existing building will be renovated and used for temporary exhibitions, collections management, education and administration. The museum has raised $78 million, including $52 million from the Legislature and $15 million from the city of Raleigh and Wake County. The museum also wants to raise $50 million for an endowment.
North Carolina has a long history of public support for the museum. In 1947, “a very bold Legislature” appropriated $1 million for public art - not for the building, but for art, as Wheeler pointed out. It was the first time any publicly elected body in the United States had appropriated public money for the acquisition of art.
When designing the building, architect Thomas Phifer of Thomas Phifer and Partners, New York, said he looked to combine art with North Carolinians’ love of land.
“When you come to a place like this, you wonder what is it going to be about the place that’s going set this building apart,” said Phifer, known for incorporating buildings into the natural environment. “What is it about the place that wants a museum here? And you look at the landscape … from the Outer Banks to the Blue Ridge Mountains. I think the land here has been so important to the people of North Carolina. It defines this state, I think.”
That history, combined with the 164 acres that the museum owns, set the tone for the design, a melding of stainless steel, glass, water designs and natural lighting. Just 1 percent of the available daylight will filter into the building in order to protect the paintings, Phifer said.
One focus of the new building is a gallery for the Rodins, which the Iris and B. Cantor Foundation promised on the condition that they have a new home. Once the Rodins arrive, the museum will have the largest collection of his works in the Southeast.
The collection is valued at $25 million, Wheeler has said.