Posted on: Sunday, May 15, 2005
Western Art faces reshaping
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
The Honolulu Academy of Arts is entering the final phase of a $15 million, seven-year renovation project and soon will be moving its Western Art galleries, including works by Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Auguste Rodin.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser The academy's holdings of Western antiquities and European Art of the Renaissance through the beginning of the 19th century will then be reinstalled in a way that is chronologically coherent and even more visually stimulating, according to Western Art curator Jennifer Saville.
The project will provide climate-controlled galleries with new lighting as well as custom-designed casework and sophisticated fire suppression and security systems. The Robert Allerton Library reading room also will be expanded and enhanced.
"We are placing a new emphasis on Western art, both in our presentations and collections acquisitions," said Stephen Little, academy director. "This renovation heralds the beginning of a new strategic focus on collecting works of art that will broaden and deepen our present collections, especially in the Western Art Department."
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser In 1999, a new education center opened with additional gallery space, a docent-training lecture hall and office quarters. In 2001, the Luce Pavilion Complex added two new 4,000-square-foot galleries, one for traveling exhibitions and one to showcase art from Hawai'i. The complex includes a a new outdoor cafe and gift shop.
The Academy Theatre, renamed The Doris Duke Theatre, also was renovated with new carpeting, seating, and projection and sound equipment.
Other expansion and renovation programs not visible to the public were completed to enhance art storage and preservation. The Textile lab and storage center and new spaces for painting and artifact storage were remodeled, expanded and opened in the basement.
"With the completion of this era of renovation and expansion, our new facilities enable us to provide a rich variety of cultural programming, vast educational opportunities and experiences, and further our founders' mission to promote cultural understanding through the channels of art," Little said.
Reach James Gonser at 535-2431 or jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com.
The project includes seven months of demolition work, rewiring and reflooring, which will take place through November. Some of the exhibit will be available for viewing in another part of the academy and part will be in storage for a short time.
Courtney Brebbia, curatorial assistant at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, shows an ancient Roman wine pitcher that was removed from a display case in the breezeway of the museum. Some of the Western Art exhibit will be available for viewing in another part of the gallery.
The project is the final phase of renovations that began in 1998. Since then, the academy has opened newly renovated galleries for Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Southeast Asian and Indonesian art as well as a gallery for the academy's growing collection of textiles and a series of galleries that explore cross-cultural influences between East and West.
Franklin Donohue, a collections technician, places an ancient Roman artifact into a storage box. Renovations to the Western Art gallery, the last phase of a seven-year project, will last seven months.
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| See it yourself
The Academy Art Center, at the corner of Ward Avenue and Beretania Street, is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. General admission is $7; seniors, students and military $4; and children 12 and under are free. For information, call 532-8700 or visit www.honoluluacademy.org. |
