MFA groundbreaking date set
On the morning of Nov. 14, the Museum of Fine Arts will break ground for what has grown into a $500 million expansion project. And in the spring, demolition will begin on the museum's existing East Wing, necessary to make room for the project, which will add a central covered courtyard, new galleries, and -- in the plan's most distinctive stylistic feature -- a 70-foot-high crystal spine that runs through the MFA.
Four years after announcing the expansion campaign, the MFA yesterday outlined a timetable for key pieces of the work to begin. The museum also released more names of donors who are part of the $302 million currently pledged, which has made this the largest fund-raising campaign in the history of Boston's cultural community.
Though there are no plans to increase the goal, MFA director Malcolm Rogers said yesterday it is ''always possible."
''The previous campaign that we did, the goal was raised at least twice in the campaign," said Rogers. ''It really depends on how successful we are, but at the moment, we feel pretty successful."
The MFA's announcement came on the day of the annual meeting of its board of trustees. Earlier this summer, the trustees voted to increase the campaign from $425 million to $500 million. Yesterday, they made that vote public and also appointed five new trustees, including John Deutch, the former director of the CIA, and 19 new overseers, including Vicki Kennedy (wife of Senator Edward Kennedy ) and Peggy Henry (wife of Red Sox owner John Henry).
''I'm bringing three things," said Deutch, a Belmont resident who is a chemistry professor at MIT. ''I'm very much a person who has had experience in management. I will try and help them raise money, especially from industry and from industries outside of Boston. And I love art."
Deutch will join an 84-person board. The MFA also has 193 overseers.
''I had an absolutely wonderful luncheon here for Teresa Heinz Kerry during the Democratic National Convention," said Kennedy, who will make education programs her focus on the board. ''I just fell in love with the museum."
The expanded MFA, which will also include new shops, is planned to open in 2009. As part of the revised $500 million goal, it will spend more to renovate the Huntington Avenue entrance and also improve the Fenway entrance. The latter has been closed since the mid-1970s but will be reopened.
The museum's goal eclipses the $150 million raised by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a campaign finished in 2001. Of the total, the MFA plans to use $305 million on the building project, $140 million to boost its endowment, and $55 million for museum operations. Of the money already pledged, it has received 14 gifts of $5 million or more from a range of donors, including
Collector William I. Koch, whose works are currently featured in a museum exhibition, has also given to the campaign. The museum won't say exactly how much. Koch is listed as contributing $1 million to $2.5 million in a campaign-related publication.
Yesterday, the MFA announced that 29 galleries in the museum will be named for many of the benefactors.
''Galleries are going fast," Rogers said. ''But I do know, for instance, that the galleries of pre-Columbian art are still available. We also have the major American paintings galleries, where one or two of those are open at the moment. And also, people like to name endowment funds, funds supporting exhibitions, lectures, concerts."
Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com 
