The William Randolph Hearst Foundation recently awarded the Asheville Art Museum a prestigious grant of $250,000 as part of the Museum’s Art WORKS for Asheville Capital Campaign.
The grant will support expanded curatorial and collections storage, research and study facilities as part of the major renovation and expansion project underway to create the new Asheville Art Museum, scheduled for completion in spring 2018.
Due to extraordinary success and growing need in the region, the Asheville Art Museum has commenced a major expansion and renovation project to create the new Asheville Art Museum. Today only 3% of the Permanent Collection can be on view at one time.
The environmentally friendly expansion and renovation project calls for the historic preservation of the Museum’s North Wing, renovation of existing spaces and new construction to transform current disparate spaces into a new cohesive, coherent and inviting Museum. A visually stunning front façade, entrance and plaza will create a 21st century architectural landmark. To meet increased demand for programs and the needs of a growing collection the new Museum will include expanded collections and curatorial facilities, galleries, educational facilities, visitor service amenities and multimedia technology.
The William Randolph Hearst Foundation award will support the creation of a new Curatorial and Collections Center, including a Collections Resource and Study Area, collections storage facilities and curatorial program offices. The Collections Resource and Study Area will be the Museum’s first ever dedicated space for collections-based research, accessible for students, curators, scholars, professors, artists and individuals wishing to study the Museum’s unique Permanent Collection of American Art of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Collections Resource and Study Area will be a vital new addition to the Museum and greatly increase access to the Collection.
Over the past 15 years the Museum’s collections have nearly quadrupled in both size and significance. The Museum’s current collection storage facilities are over-capacity. With the expansion project, the Museum’s new storage facilities, including a new collections storage area located in the Curatorial and Collections Center, will securely accommodate the Museum’s current collections as well as providing space for continued growth.
Asheville Art Museum Executive Director Pamela Myers said, “The Museum thanks the William Randolph Hearst Foundation for their longstanding commitment to collections and education and for their recognition of the excellence of the Asheville Art Museum’s programming, exhibitions and collections and its impact now and in the future.”