The Harwood Museum of Art officially breaks ground for a 10,000 sq. ft. expansion on Wednesday, July 1, 10 a.m. at 238 Ledoux Street in Taos. The result of several years of fundraising and planning, the project is expected to increase community and student resources and improve art preservation. The groundbreaking ceremony also introduces new Director Susan Longhenry.
The expansion will provide additional gallery space, a 135 seat auditorium, double the existing art collection storage space, archival and work study research rooms, a loading dock and an art receiving area. The entire project is expected to cost $6.3 million and involves extensive excavation to fit this multi-level expansion into the compact historic site available for construction.
The expansion includes more than 1,000 sq. ft. of state-of-the-art storage for the Harwood’s ever growing collection of more than 3,500 works of art. This is critically needed space for good stewardship and is consistent with the American Association of Museum’s standards. The work study space will provide students and scholars with greater access to the museum archives. A covered receiving area is necessary to protect art in transit as it is loaned to or from the Harwood.
The auditorium, in keeping with the intent of Lucy and Burt Harwood, will provide the community with more educational and performance opportunities within the arts. It is a 95 seat raked auditorium with 40 movable seats that will accommodate the Taos Chamber Music Group concerts, Harwood and UNM lectures, and other community educational events and social functions.
The auditorium will be equipped with infrastructure to eventually allow reception of incoming media broadcasting from UNM main campus in Albuquerque and other venues. The gallery exhibition space will be equipped with audio-visual technology and be named for two Taos Modern artists, Beatrice Mandelman and Louis Ribak.
With 85 percent of the funds raised, July 1 also marks the beginning of the public phase of the capital fundraising campaign. With legislative support of approximately $3 million and private and UNM support totaling $2.4 million, the Harwood’s fundraising goal to complete the project is $950,000.
For more information, contact Juniper Manley, Harwood director of development, at (575) 758-9138 or e-mail at, jmanley@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at June 29, 2009 04:57 PM