Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Finally, after more than three-and-a-half years of work to transform the grounds of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum along Elmwood Avenue, doors will re-open to welcome back patrons of not just the Western New York community, but also the world.
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"It's an awesome culmination of more than 10 years of work by hundreds of individuals, hundreds of staff members, board members, philanthropic individuals who have made this capital campaign of $230 million possible," said Janne Sirén, Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. "It's the result of the envisioning process that hundreds of Western New Yorkers engaged in when we did our town hall meetings, and asked people, 'What do you want from your hometown museum? Do you want us even to expand?' So many people have contributed to this moment that it's hard to describe the sort of wealth of intellectual energy that has gone into it. And it's at moments like this where time both slows down and quickens. We are at the doorstep of a new era in Buffalo's cultural history, and in the history of this museum."
After breaking ground on the massive project back in November of 2019, the historic art museum will open its doors again to the Wilmers and Knox Buildings, while also giving a sneak peak week for the new Gundlach Building that was built to help expand the museum's gallery and hold other special events.
"This is a project that speaks volumes about where Buffalo has come in a long period of time," said Congressman Brian Higgins of the re-opening. "You have a situation where this is not only a celebration of the arts, it's a celebration of a patron of the arts. Whether it's John Albright, whether it's Seymour Knox, or whether it's Jeffrey Gundlach, these individuals are as important as the exhibits that these museums display. So we are very fortunate to have, and to have had these individuals in our communities, and this is a very important day for Buffalo."
As for the full-time employees of the art museum, they are eager to get to work engaging with the community, and working a space that had been discussed so much over the course of 10 years.
"So much time and effort has gone into this project, not just for the people that work here, but the community as well," said Charlie Garling, Delaware North Director of Learning and Creativity with the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. "Much of what we've created is based on community input from dozens of community meetings, community feedback. Even more than the transformation and expansion of our physical campus, what's exciting is going to be the spaces and the programs that will enliven it."
"To be able to get out of the model, the planning stages and moving little postage stamp-sized paintings around on our models, and now suddenly the works are real, they're hung on the walls, the sculptures are installed. We're so excited to welcome artists, community members in not just to see the collection - that's the part I'm the most excited about - but also all of these new spaces that we've created," said Cathleen Chaffee, Charles Balbach Chief Curator with Buffalo AKG.
Monday's celebration is set to be a massive one for the Buffalo AKG with an elaborate ceremony, followed by a ribbon-cutting to mark the official re-opening of the museum to the public. Sirén says Monday will be a celebration with the Buffalo and Western New York community.
"We wanted to build a museum of, and for the people. The thing that we, as a team, are most proud of is that we stayed true to that notion of building a museum that's for the people, of the people," Sirén said. "That means that every aspect of the architecture has been impacted by what we heard from our citizens in this region. The curatorial installations, the public spaces, the way that people will move through the three buildings, all of that is really the materialization of what our community asked of us. And I'm really proud of the fact that we've been so true to the feedback that we've received early on from our community."
With the addition of the new Gundlach Building on the museum campus, as well as the addition of new green spaces and other enhancements to the museum and its facilities, the Buffalo AKG is another shining example of what the Renaissance of the community has produced.
"I think the world will look at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum as one of the great art destinations in the world," Sirén said. "I think it's hard for those of us who live and work here in Western New York to even really imagine what that means, but the excitement that we are sensing already from all corners of the world is so tangible, we will be awestruck by the fact that this will become a place of pilgrimage for people from across the world. And I think that's a great thing for Western New York and for Buffalo."
"It's certainly an iteration of that, but it's not the only thing. Downtown development, that's a story that's extraordinary. The cleanup of our waterways, because of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The development of our waterfront. These are all things that point to a city with a new level of confidence, and a confidence that is going to continue to sustain us moving forward," Higgins added. "It will draw people in from outside the area as well, and when people come in from outside the area, they're doing what, they're spending money. They're adding to our economy. The fundamentals of economic growth is to import wealth that is not normally here. That visitor sector, if you will, that travel and tourism will be great net contributors to the advancement of the Buffalo and Western New York economy."
The new Buffalo AKG Art Museum has doubled the amount of space the museum originally had in order to show more of the art it has in its permanent collection. Higgins knows this will heighten Buffalo's place in the world as an art and cultural hub, and it couldn't have been done without the people that came to this community and put their time and money into the city and its community.
"They saw the great potential of this museum, this art gallery, and this is a great day for Buffalo to be celebrated, to be enjoyed and to be embraced as one of the many cultural icons that we have in Buffalo and Western New York," Higgins said. "A lot of these was manufacturing in the earlier part of the 20th century, late 19th century, that brought John Albright to Buffalo. He wasn't an artist himself, but he made a lot of money and was a patron of the arts. And then Seymour Knox after him and Jeffrey Gundlach after them. So this is a long line of a great tradition in Buffalo and Western New York. So the Albright-Knox-Gundlach Art Museum is going to be a festive occasion for the grand opening on Monday, but its benefits will be sustained not only in the days after that, but the years and the generations after that, as well."
As for what people can expect to see when doors re-open, Chaffee says there will still be plenty of old favorites on display, while offering a number of different elements as well.
"Now with this new campus, we're going to be able to not just have the kinds of new exciting cutting edge shows, emerging artists, modern exhibitions that we're known for - changing shows we'll do between six and 12, changing special exhibitions a year - but now we're going to also be able to have a fairly stable permanent collection installation," she explained. "We don't have to take that down for a special show, it's going to remain on view. So if you want to take your visiting aunt in from out-of-town to see the Jackson Pollock 'Convergence' painting, or to see our Monet painting, you know it's going to be there."
Meanwhile, Chaffee adds the new Gundlach Building gives the museum an enormous amount of flexibility to share special exhibitions, as well as the permanent collection with audiences.
"We can have changing shows on multiple floors of the building. If one is closed, you can still see so much more of the campus. It's not like it was often before where we would have to say half the museum is closed, because we were installing. Now it might just be one set of galleries, but everything else is still on view, the collection is still there," Chaffee said. "It gives us an ability to care for the collection better, to move it in-and-out of the building more safely, and to really give people new aesthetic experiences, new experiences with art, and new experiences with the wealth of their city."
In the weeks and days leading to the re-opening of the Buffalo AKG, Sirén has been busy giving a number of different tours to media members and others of the project as it nears completion. So far, he says there have been plenty of "oohs and ahhs" to go around.
"[Thursday], we had members of the Global Art Media here, and as I was listening to their comments to each other as they were walking through the galleries, it was along these lines: 'I can't believe this work is also in this collection. I can't believe this work is in Buffalo,'" Sirén exclaimed. "We have some of the greatest works of modern and contemporary art inside these galleries. You can take any museum anywhere in the world, and we measure up to them in that regard. If you look at the art from 1850 to today, it's one of the greatest collections in the world."
So what is to come for patrons of art and other members of the Western New York community in the sneak peak week for the Buffalo AKG?
"During the weekend of June 15, 16, 17, 18, that's also the Juneteenth holiday weekend, and that's a moment when a lot of people come to Buffalo from different parts of the country. The museum will be free of access, admission charges for the entire museum. It's an opportunity for us to celebrate Juneteenth together with visitors from the city and from beyond Western New York, and really showcase what we've built here with our community and for our community," Sirén detailed.
While June 19 will see the Gundlach Building close for the public as they complete the finishing touches on construction, Sirén says the Wilmers and Knox building will remain open to welcome back the people of the beloved community.
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