RISD Museum Reveals Renovated Ancient and Medieval Galleries
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Everything old is new again.
This Friday, September 24, the RISD Museum will reveal its latest major renovation and reinstallation: the ancient, medieval, and early Renaissance galleries.
It's been a long wait for these spaces, located in the 1926 Radeke Building. Closed since last year, these galleries that feature some of the museum's most important holdings, are now fully restored to their original architectural grandeur. It's a breathtaking step forward, while honoring the museum's past.
"These are among the most beautiful and highly articulated architectural spaces in The RISD Museum," says interim director Ann Woolsey, "and we are very pleased to return them to their former glory and to reinstall them with treasures from our permanent collections."
The support
The renovation and reinstallation of the ancient, medieval, and early Renaissance galleries were supported by the generosity of a number of donors, including Board of Governors members Glenn Creamer and Dr. Arnold-Peter Weiss and their wives Mary Jane Creamer and Dr. Yvonne Weiss.
The project was also funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, which in 2006 gave the Museum a $600,000 matching grant for reinstalling and reinterpreting the permanent collection. The ancient, medieval, and early Renaissance gallery renovations are part of this five-year plan.
More renovations in store
Which means there's more to come. On October 21, the Museum will unveil the reinstallation of its European Galleries, building on the engaging approach already fully realized in the Museum's acclaimed Paula and Leonard Granoff Central and South Galleries, which display 20th-century works of art with furniture, apparel, and design from the same period, presenting a fuller portrait of the time.
The next and final phase of the project, a renovation of the 6th floor of the Radeke Building, will begin in 2011 and be completed the following year, resulting in a reinstallation of the Museum's Asian art, Egyptian art, and costume and textiles collections as well as the monumental 12th-century wooden Japanese Buddha. This will include the new Angelo Donghia Costume and Textile Study Gallery, an exhibition and study/storage area that will provide greater access to the Museum's costume and textile objects to students, scholars, and-for the first time-the public.
The galleries open officially to the public this Friday. The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 224 Benefit St, Providence, 454-6500.
From top: Roman, Daphne, near Antioch, Floor mosaic fragment depicting Bacchus, 325-330 CE, Colored stone and marble; 46 ¼ x 46 ¼ in. Museum Collection, by exchange 40.195. Master of the Brussels Initials, Italian, b. Bologna, active in Bologna, Padua, and Paris, ca. 1390–1420. Saint Nicholas, ca. 1410–1420. Watercolor, shell gold, leaf gold, and lapis lazuli on vellum. Mary B. Jackson Fund 2010.19.2.
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