Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - "Let me say the seven words that I've been waiting seven years to say: Welcome to the Buffalo AKG Art Museum."
Those were the words of Western New York native Jeffrey Gundlach, who contributed $65 million of a $230 million capital campaign project to transform the Buffalo AKG Art Museum campus, which began three-and-a-half years ago in November of 2019. Fast-forward to 2023, and the historic art museum is finally re-open for the Buffalo community, as well as the world.
"Thanks to our new state-of-the-art, 21st century campus, we now have the opportunity to empower people to dream big, to actualize and activate in welcoming spaces their own creativity through the transformative power of art. In a nutshell, we are gathered here today to celebrate both what has been, and what will be, and might be human achievement and human potential," said Janne Sirén, Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum during Monday's ceremonies. "The Buffalo AKG is more than just a repository of glorious objects. In our case, a world renowned collection of modern and contemporary art. It is also more than just a vehicle that moves art and people vertically and horizontally. We are a community gathering space, a welcoming hub of creative energies for everyone, a place of memory and of inspiration."
LISTEN LIVE TO WBEN:
The Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) welcomed its local community, special guests, and supporters from around the world for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the start of the museum’s summer opening season. The event marked the first opportunity for the public to visit the museum’s renewed and vastly expanded campus designed by OMA/Shohei Shigematsu in collaboration with Cooper Robertson.
The new Buffalo AKG comprises more than 50,000 square feet of prime exhibition space, five state-of-the-art studio classrooms, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Town Square, and more than half an acre of new public green space situated above an underground parking garage.
Designed with substantial input from communities throughout Western New York and the museum’s leadership, the renewed and expanded campus is ensconced within the city’s beloved Frederick Law Olmsted–designed Delaware Park.
"This city went through hell. With COVID, a vile shooting of our own people on the East Side of Buffalo, difficult weather where we lost people, a consequence of climate change. But we're enduring, we're resilient, we're good people. This is a good city on a good day to make a great announcement about an extraordinary addition to our humanity as a city," said Congressman Brian Higgins during Monday's ceremony. "Jeffrey Gundlach, your gift this community is as important as your confidence in this community. And on behalf of a grateful community, we thank you for your work. Today is a day to give thanks for many things. I thank you for the opportunity that you give me to represent this community in the United States Congress. We get thanks to John Albright, Seymour Knox to Jeffrey Gundlach for the beautiful gift that they've given to this community, only for the people in the community that they love."
With the addition of three new points of entry positioned throughout the campus, the museum’s architectural presence now reflects and advances its mission to radically increase the accessibility of its facilities and engage all members of its community with an inclusive, interactive, and porous campus.
"The time that we're living in right now, there are people from all across the world that are searching for, and dreaming of their place in the world. The Buffalo AKG Art Museum has been designed as a world class museum. Yes, that's important, but more than that, a place in the world for all people," said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. "Where all people can see themselves, where all people can be comfortable. A place where people will want to be. This museum is a powerful example of Buffalo. A powerful example of what can be accomplished when we work together, when we dream big, and when we make our dreams come true."
Related
"This just says one thing: Buffalo, we've made our mark. We've arrived. This means something not today, but as you've heard from our speakers, for generations to come, because it says, 'Buffalo, your place that matters," added New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday. "You're a place that people from around the world to be talking about, as they should be. We have architecture that is second-to-none, culture and arts and diversity. Nobody can hold a candle to this place. A little more crudely, we really punch above our weight."
Following Monday’s celebration and a special preview day on June 13 dedicated to the museum’s community partners, educators, and members, the entire new campus will be open to the public free of admission from June 15 through June 18, 2023.
Beginning June 19, 2023, the public will be able to visit the museum’s renovated Robert and Elisabeth Wilmers Building, Seymour H. Knox Building, and the new Ralph Wilson Town Square, featuring Common Sky, a new, monumental site-specific artwork by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann of Studio Other Spaces.
On the campus’s North side, the Jeffrey E. Gundlach Building, a new work of signature architecture by OMA/Shohei Shigematsu in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, will open to the public on July 20, 2023.