From the Director

The museum is a very different place today than it was a year ago. For one thing the galleries have been transformed into staging areas for the monumental task of packing the museum's collection of 13,000 objects and moving them out of the building. Though this project is a departure from the usual work of the staff, we're extremely enthused about it - because moving artwork from the building is the first stage of our forthcoming construction project. This fall, we're closer to reopening the renovated and expanded galleries, in early 2002 - and that's exciting!

A year ago, the campaign fundraising goal for the art building project was set at $2 million. In January, the Trustees of the College increased the goal by $1 million, in order to enlarge the museum's expansion to 2,800 square feet. The possibility of this important addition to the museum was the result of a challenge gift from Harriet and Paul Weissman. Harriet Levine Weissman (class of 1958) has been a longtime patron of the art museum, a dedicated member of its advisory board, and a college trustee. It is my pleasure to announce that the Weissman Challenge was met by the 30 June 2000 deadline. The capital campaign is still underway, of course, and fundraising efforts will continue through 2003. But meeting the Weissman Challenge means that the art building project, including the addition to the museum, can get underway on schedule.

The expansion will provide new spaces for 17th-, 18th-, and early-19th-century art in addition to modern and contemporary art, much of which has remained in storage for the last decade because of limited gallery space. These new galleries will enable the museum to support the entire range of courses offered by the art department. A new room will also serve as a study gallery where faculty can request to have objects on view for classroom use or for special assignments.

The building project is by no means limited to the museum level of the art building. On the second and third floors of the building, 22,000 square feet of renovated space will provide new classrooms equipped with the latest technology, studio space, an expanded slide library, and a visual studies lab. Important for all the residents of the building will be the installation of a passenger elevator linking the museum lobby with the second and third floors, which will not only comply with accessibility requirements but also facilitate a meaningful integration of museum, art history, and studio programs.

While all of this construction work is underway, parts of the collection can be seen at other institutions in the Northeast, as you will learn from later pages of this Newsletter. Also, you can find information about our ongoing activities, as well as details about the building project and plans for new gallery spaces, on the museum's website. We are also pleased to announce that our site has been recently redesigned, by Theresa Chamberlain (FP, class of 1998). We've added many more pages with information about education and outreach programs in addition to the general information about the museum, our collections, and programs. Another new feature allows you to click on images to see a larger view. So please do visit us at www.mtholyoke.edu/go/artmuseum.

—Marianne Doezema

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