Colby College Museum of Art Reopens!

Architect’s rendering of the the addition to the Colby College Museum of Art.
-Courtesy Colby College-

The Colby College Museum of Art has been closed to the public for the past month as it prepared for a fifteen million dollar expansion. Visitors can now experience the museum by entering through a temporary entrance adjacent to the Paul J. Schupf Wing.

The museum will now remain open throughout the construction process, although some galleries will be closed to the public during the work. The current exhibit will be on display through Jan. 22, and is titled "Rediscoveries 1: New Perspectives on the Permanent Collection". There is also information dedicated to pending Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion, the 26,000-square-foot glass and steel addition. Interior demolition is expect to begin by the end of the month, and the new construction is scheduled to be completed by mid 2013.

The new pavilion will expand the square footage of the museum from 28,000 square feet to 54,000 square feet, with 38,000 square feet dedicated as exhibition space. Plans also include a sculpture terrace, a classroom for museum education and outreach and art department studios on the top floor.

The Colby College Museum of Art is open Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/museum/ or call 859-5600.

Colby Set for Museum Expansion After Capital Campaign Exceeds Expectations

In 2007, the Colby Museum of Art announced that it would receive one of the most important collections of American art ever given to a liberal arts college from Peter and Paula Lunder, who felt strongly that the art should be accessible to the people of Maine. To accomplish that goal, Colby needed a new exhibition space, and the campaign’s capstone gift, $5 million from the Portland, Maine-based Harold Alfond Foundation, will fund a major portion of a museum expansion to house the Lunder Collection.

The new gallery space is part of a $15-million, 26,000-square-foot expansion scheduled to break ground in mid-2011 for completion in 2013, Colby’s bicentennial year. It will allow many important pieces in the Lunder Collection to be exhibited, including works by James McNeill Whistler, Georgia O’Keeffe, Edward Hopper, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, and many other American masters.

Colby College exceeded its $370-million capital campaign goal June 30, raising a total of $376-million in the largest fundraising campaign in Maine’s history. The Reaching the World Campaign, begun in 2005 under Colby President William D. Adams, was mounted to support financial aid, facilities, and the academic experience.

The full press release can be found within the press section of the Colby website.