Smart Museum completes $2 million renovation: New galleries to reopen Nov. 23

The University of Chicago’s David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art is preparing to reopen to the public on Tues. Nov. 23, following an expansive renovation and a reinstallation of its permanent collection. The $2 million renovation features new, more spacious special exhibition galleries, more extensive displays of modern, contemporary, and Asian collections, and an innovative thematic presentation of rotating selections from the Smart’s significant collections of antiquities and Old Master works.

The renovation also is highlighted by a new education study room, for use by the broader community as well as university classes and school groups, and all-new, state-of-the-art storage facilities.

The museum closed on April 19 for construction. Located on the University of Chicago’s Hyde Park campus, the Museum houses more than 7,500 art objects, spanning five centuries of Western and Far Eastern civilizations. It is named for the founders and publishers of Esquire magazine.

Recognized for the excellence and intellectual standards of its exhibition program, the high quality and uniqueness of its permanent collection, and its innovative, effective education programs for Chicago school children, the Smart Museum serves over 30,000 people annually.

The museum was constructed in 1974 and designed by renowned architect Edward Larrabee Barnes. Barnes’s other projects include the Dallas Museum of Art, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and Carnegie Institute of Art in Pittsburgh.

The renovation is designed by noted Chicago architect John Vinci of Vinci/Hamp Architects, Inc. Vinci has undertaken renovations of other Barnes buildings and recently designed the new Arts Club of Chicago and the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute gallery renovations. In addition, he regularly works with the Art Institute of Chicago on exhibition installations.

The Smart Museum has embarked on a major fundraising effort, the Silver Anniversary Renewal Campaign, to finance the renovations. To date, $1.6 million toward a campaign goal of $2 million has been raised.

“These improvements to our physical facilities will prepare us for the 21st century with state-of-the-art facilities for exhibitions, collection display, education programs, and expanded storage for our rapidly growing collection,” Smart Board Chairman Richard Gray said. “As a museum that is part of one of our nation’s greatest research universities, the Smart has a unique role to play in our local and national cultural community. We have a 25-year history of presenting groundbreaking exhibitions and programs on important topics that could not otherwise be seen in Chicago.”

“Since the museum opened in 1974, its collections have more than tripled, and the scope of activities and programs has increased dramatically,” Kimerly Rorschach, the Smart’s Dana Feitler Director, said. “The renovation will allow the Smart Museum to continue its leadership role among university museums.”

In addition to the new permanent collection displays, the museum will feature the special exhibition “Surrealism in America During the 1930s and 1940s: Selections from the Penny and Elton Yasuna Collection.”