Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

I am happy to introduce a new voice on the Nelson-Atkins blog. "Barb the Builder" will update us frequently on the progress of the American and American Indian gallery renovations on the second floor of the Nelson-Atkins Building.

And now, from Barb the Builder:

Demolished materials from the former American period rooms, including antique wood beams and ceiling planks, lie in a jumbled heap on the floor of their former home. Their demise reveals the infrastructure of the 1933 building, including tar-coated brick walls −a moisture-barrier technique used in the original construction. Have we ever come a long way since then!

This space will become two large American art galleries. Directly above, on a mezzanine level, was the old studio for the Museum’s graphic design department. This mezzanine floor will be cut away, resulting in more expansive ceiling heights in the new American galleries. One of the period rooms, the Hooper room (from the Robert Hooper House
of Danvers, Massachusetts ca. 1754), will be reinstalled immediately east of the old contemporary art space, directly across from the south elevator.

Here's another installment from Barb the Builder about the renovation of the American and American Indian galleries.

I'll build a stairway to Paradise
with a new step ev'ry day!
I'm gonna get there at any price;
Stand aside, I'm on my way!

With apologies to George Gershwin, we could well be singing these very words today. Certainly we’re taking lots of new steps and are on our way toward our latest construction project − the complete renovation of the American and American Indian galleries in the Nelson-Atkins Building. Seen here, standing stalwart while much around it is crumbling away, is the stair in the former collection photography studio, which led to a small mezzanine office. Days after this photo was taken, the stair itself was demolished and faded into oblivion, making way for a new gallery that will feature works dated circa 1776.

It looks rather like a perpetual motion roller coaster or a suspended playground jungle gym (note the floor below). Viewed from an abstract perspective, it might even constitute a contemporary piece of sculpture. Actually, it is part of the steel framework that supports the concrete slab above, which made up the floor of the old mezzanine above the former American period rooms. It is all gone now, resulting in a cavernous and empty space. It will soon begin a process of transformation, eventually housing two of the new galleries in the renovated American wing, which is scheduled to open in spring 2009.

. . . adds up to a whole lot – in this case, updated electrical systems for the new American galleries. Square elements shown upper and middle right are sections of Unistrut metal framing. Secured to the ceiling more than 25 feet above the gallery floor, and well above the height of the gallery ceilings themselves, this framework supports vertical hangers that drop down to hold suspended trays for runs of cable or high-power bus duct, a system of enclosed circuitry. The round metal tubes comprise conduit for standard electrical wiring.

William Shakespeare said it very well in The Merchant of Venice, and it is no less applicable here. A gleaming wall in the soon-to-be American galleries is not gold – nor, indeed, silver – no matter how it glistens in the light. It is a wall of insulation that has been placed in front of the old tar-covered interior walls of the Nelson-Atkins Building.

This silvery insulation will prevail throughout the newly renovated spaces. On the floor in the foreground lie steel beams that will support the floor of a mechanical mezzanine in this area. The renovated American galleries will open in April 2009.

More than 75 years ago, workers who helped to create the beloved Nelson-Atkins Building left behind a witness to their pride of workmanship and its place in the Museum’s birth.

On a wall just inside the American Gallery construction site, the following was recently discovered: “WR Cromwell, Paper Hangar [sic], May, 10, 1932.” Similar signatures have been found in other Museum areas that have recently been renovated, most especially at the top of the cove walls of Kirkwood Hall, when that space was completed in 2005.

Whether signatures are left behind to attest to the work that is ongoing today – or not – we may never know. Nonetheless, pride of place is repeatedly demonstrated in the quality of work and depth of care that we see daily displayed in the current American/American Indian Gallery project.

Like a fanned hand of cards, played by a giant, old ductwork in the Nelson-Atkins Building splays out across the ceiling in one of the new American Art spaces.

Much of the old ventilation system has been completely demolished in the renovation process, but this particular run of duct will remain and become part of the new installation, giving us a slight twist on the old song – some things old are new again.

Some new works of art and some old friends are being sprinkled into the contemporary galleries in the Bloch Building. I have noticed a few here and there including Time Pocket by Dennis Oppenheim and Venturi and Blue Pinion by James Rosenquist.

Gallery L5 has changed almost completely. Fred Wilson's The Ominous Glut is featured prominently. The Museum acquired it in 2007, and I don't believe it has been on view previously. The meaning is overtly political dealing with "greed, pollution, global warming and wars in the Middle East." The composition is intriguing with its big drops attached to the wall as if they are sliding down into the puddle on the floor.

Other works in the gallery include Alison Saar's Subway Preacher which I haven't seen on view for several years. Roger Brown's Southern Skies and Southern Pines returns as well with its zigzag patterns of sky and earth.

Even though I miss Elizabeth Murray's Art Part and Carroll Dunham's Particular Aspects (Two), I'm happy to say they are only gone for a short time. These paintings plus others will be on view this summer in Sparks! The William T. Kemper Collecting Initiative.

If you like comparing “before and after” images or the Big Reveal at the end of a home makeover reality show, you won’t want to miss the sneak-peek debut of two reupholstered and conserved, 19th-century American sofas at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on Thursday, May 1.

A Neoclassical sofa and a Renaissance Revival settee have gone from grungy to glamorous thanks to a Conservation Project Support Grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). For many years, the pieces’ condition prevented their exhibition, but soon they will be displayed in the reinstalled galleries of the American collections, opening Spring 2009.

The first part of the program is a conservation workshop. Conservator Robert Mussey of Robert Mussey Associates of Boston, will join Museum curator Catherine Futter and conservator Joe Rogers as they present art historical background on the pieces and how they were conserved.

Later that evening, enjoy a lecture by Peter Kenny, American Decorative Arts Curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as he places the Nelson-Atkins’ sofa and settee in the context of Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival furniture of 19th-century America and the thriving furniture manufacturing industry in New York City.

Submitted by Elizabeth Williams, Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts.

In the new American galleries, Rowland Hall will showcase American works dating from 1776, the period of America’s independence, forward into the 1800s. The hall, inspired by the Federalist architecture of Robert Adam, will be graced with elegant coves and wall niches, marble columns and circular skylights. Robert Adam really changed the way people thought about the architecture of antiquity through his extensive research and study experiences. Architects today still look back on basic principles brought to fruition by the person to whom the Nelson-Atkins' Rowland Hall will be paying homage.

Shown here is the framework for one of the two skylights (center), together with the rough placement for the other (upper left). The metal braces that hang down from the ceiling in a circular pattern form a ledge upon which the pie-wedged glass laylights will rest. Lighting fixtures above the glass will be focused upward toward the ceiling, which will be painted white. The white ceiling and frame will reflect and redirect the light downward through the glass. You'll be able to see these beautiful skylights yourself in April 2009.

Last week, a group of Museum staff got a behind-the-scenes tour of the renovation going on in the American and American Indian galleries. It blew my socks off! The space will be absolutely amazing.

We started in the hallway that used to hold the Thomas Hart Benton murals. It took me a few minutes to remember what that space used to look like. Here are the galleries just off the hallway. They are putting in huge electrical upgrades and special art-hanging walls.

The main hall in the American section will be called Rowland Hall. It will contain art beginning in 1776 and the architecture will match that time period.

We learned a little about the safety upgrades and saw some of the original clay tile walls from the 1930s.

The American Indian galleries were not as far along but the red iron supports are in place for the casework that will be throughout the spaces. They will be the same specially crafted cases that are in the African galleries in the Bloch Building. There will be 37 cases in the American Indian rooms.

I'll let Barb the Builder tell you about those things in detail. Be sure to keep reading!

The new American Indian galleries, scheduled to open in November 2009, will include 38 glass cases for the display of objects. These cases were designed by Museum staff and are being fabricated in Milan, Italy, by Laboratorio Museotecnico Goppion, one of the world’s most prestigious casework manufacturers, who also made the cases for the African and contemporary ceramics galleries in the Museum’s new Bloch Building.

Some of the American Indian cases will contain glass panes as tall as 10 feet, and 13 feet wide. The resulting weight is such that special structural steel beams have been attached to the existing ceiling and wall infrastructure to provide support. Shown here are some of these red iron beams, looking for all the world like a steel trapeze frozen in time and space.