NORFOLK, VA.- On May 10, 2014, the Chrysler Museum of Art reopensed following an extensive renovation and expansion designed to showcase the Museum’s nationally recognized collection and support new exhibition strategies and educational programming. The project includes the redesign and refurbishment of the Chrysler’s 210,000-square-foot interior and the addition of 10,000 square feet of new gallery wings flanking the Museum’s front entrance. The new facility is named the Macon and Joan Brock Building, in recognition of the couple’s longstanding support for the Museum. For its reopening, the Chrysler has mounted the most comprehensive presentation in more than 25 years of its 30,000-work collection, which includes particular strengths in American and European painting and sculpture, as well as one of the world’s finest collections of glass.

The core of the Chrysler’s collection was donated by Walter Chrysler, Jr., the auto industry scion whose contentious collecting legacy receives an unprecedented reevaluation upon the Museum’s reopening. The museum-wide reinstallation showcases some of the collection’s most important works, including the monumental Picasso mural Composition for Bal de la Mer (1928), which is on view for the first time in more than 20 years. Additional highlights of the installation include Idelle Weber’s Munchkins I, II, & III (1964), a massive Pop art mural that the Museum acquired last fall; a Pre-columbian Veracruz terracotta warrior figure whose armor depicts the flayed skin of his victims; and The Chrysler Chandelier, a contemporary sculpture by Luke Jerram, commissioned specifically for the Museum’s spiral staircase.

The Chrysler’s renowned glass collection has recently been enlarged by multiple new gifts and acquisitions that are displayed in the newly expanded glass galleries. Last summer, the Museum announced the acquisition of The Attack, a rare 17-inch glass cameo plaque created by George and Thomas Woodall that is displayed at the Chrysler alongside its companion piece The Intruders for the first time ever in a public setting. The expanded glass galleries also display a major work by Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová: Victory Column (1997), which was created by the artists to commemorate the fall of Communism in their native Czechoslovakia. One of only three works of its kind in existence, Victory Column is a recent gift to the Chrysler from Museum Trustee Dudley Anderson and his wife Linda.

The expansion adds two new wings that house galleries for the Chrysler’s collection of American and European painting and sculpture, and provides 30 percent more gallery space for the Museum’s renowned glass collection. The project also creates a new glass study gallery, as well as an introductory space that feature a live video feed to the Museum’s adjacent Glass Studio, which features daily glassblowing demonstrations and other popular programs. The ancient worlds galleries and the modern and contemporary art galleries have been reconfigured and expanded, with additional spaces to display the Museum’s growing collection of new media pieces and 21st-century works.

“Our building project is the latest component of the Chrysler’s ongoing commitment to providing our visitors with experiences that delight, inform, and inspire,” said Bill Hennessey, director of the Chrysler Museum of Art. “We began by adopting free admission, by retraining our security staff as Gallery Hosts, by rethinking fundamentally the way we present and interpret our collections, and by creating our dynamic Glass Studio. Now our community and visitors to Norfolk will be able to enjoy our extraordinary collection in beautifully expanded and modernized galleries.”

The project is the latest phase of the Museum’s $45 million capital campaign, which includes:

· Growth of the endowment to support the Museum’s expanded operations and ensure long-term financial stability

· The $24 million expansion and renovation of the Museum’s main building

· Creation of the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio, which opened in November 2011

To date, the Museum has raised more than 99 percent of its overall campaign goal of $45 million.

Expansion and Renovation Design
Designed by the local firm H&A Architects, the Chrysler’s expansion and renovation fosters cross-disciplinary initiatives spanning the Museum’s collection areas and different venues—its main Museum building, the Glass Studio, and the two historic homes the Museum administers. A central priority for the expansion and renovation project was to create a facility that enables the Chrysler Museum to present new interpretive strategies and programming. At the same time, the Museum was committed to retaining its Italianate façade and exterior design¾widely hailed when it was completed in 1989 while still allowing for the creation of additional exhibition and public spaces. The challenge was solved by shifting two gardens at the Museum’s entrance forward and constructing two additional wings in the spaces opened up behind the relocated gardens. The new wings and the reconfiguration of the Museum’s interior increase the Chrysler’s galleries by 10,000 square feet and create more flexible and airy exhibition spaces. The design also establishes an intuitive, unified circulation flow through the building and provides space to highlight recent acquisitions as the collection continues to grow.

The project introduces environmentally sensitive climate control and lighting systems to support green operations, as well as landscaping to connect the Museum’s main building and the nearby Chrysler Museum Glass Studio. Enhanced visitor amenities include an expanded café with an outdoor dining terrace, offering a variety of local foods and seasonal specialties, and an updated museum shop with expanded offerings.

The Chrysler’s glass galleries have expanded by one third and shift from a “study collection” installation to exhibits that focus on in-depth presentations of masterworks. Visitors will be able to follow a number of story lines that illustrate not only the objects’ aesthetic importance, but also their role in history and people’s lives. Some of the many themes explored in the galleries include the influence of non-Western art on glass design, and the use of glass as a historical “document” featuring images of prominent citizens and historical events derived from prints, drawings, and paintings.

The reinstallation throughout the Museum combines traditional and non-traditional exhibition strategies, including a series of “activations” that pair pieces from different cultures, periods, and media to reveal new perspectives on familiar works and trace the different exploration of ideas across time.