New ICA to open Dec. 10
After weeks of construction delays, the Institute of Contemporary Art will announce today that its new building will open to the public on Dec. 10. That puts the opening nearly three months later than originally planned, and on a waterfront where daytime temperatures usually hover in the low 40s.
Museum leaders had considered waiting longer, but said they felt they needed to open as soon as they could.
``You're never going to have total certainty," said Paul Buttenwieser , chairman of the ICA's board of trustees. ``But the public's been waiting, we've been waiting, and we're just raring to go."
The museum postponed the slated Sept. 17 public opening with only weeks to go, citing small but significant construction problems. The $51 million building will be the first new art museum in Boston in nearly a hundred years.
ICA director Jill Medvedow yesterday downplayed the delay as ``a very, very minor blip." But it has meant rescheduling performances planned for the ICA's new theater in October and November.
The ICA stressed that money was never an issue. In fact, today the museum is also going to announce that it has raised $65 million for the project, $3 million more than its original goal.
By pushing the opening into December, the ICA had little wiggle room as it worked to schedule a series of private parties and member events between Thanksgiving and Christmas. For the public, that left Dec. 10, the second Sunday in the month.
It also means the ICA will open to the public the weekend of Art Basel Miami Beach , among the country's most prestigious contemporary art fairs.
``This is definitely Plan B, maybe even Plan C at this point," former ICA director David Ross said yesterday. ``But you've got to get it open. They've got to start making some money. They've got shows to do and projects and commitments to other institutions."
Joseph Ketner , chief curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum and former director of Brandeis University's Rose Art Museum, said the new date would complicate scheduling for many art world luminaries who've had the Miami fair on their calendars for a while.
``I'm very excited for the opening, but this is awkward timing to piggyback onto Art Basel," he said . ``My plane tickets are for me to be in Miami through that weekend. So I'll need to check and see if I can change them."
ICA deputy director Paul Bessire said the museum would take advantage of the scheduling. Before the public opening, the ICA will host a series of parties in the new building early in December. Then the ICA will take a group of donors to Miami from Tuesday to Friday, returning in time for the Sunday shindig.
The new building, sitting on a prime waterfront lot on Fan Pier, marks a dramatic upgrade for the contemporary art museum, tripling its gallery space and allowing it to collect art for the first time.
World Music/CRASHarts , which has signed on to program events in the ICA's 325-seat theater, has spent much of the fall shifting performances to other dates, and other venues. In recent days, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence , originally set for five ICA shows in late November and early December, moved to the Cutler Majestic Theatre. The ICA agreed to shift Ten's the Limit, a showcase of local dancers, from mid-November to the spring.
``I'm not upset, I'm frustrated as anyone would be who has to call a ticket buyer and has to explain to them, `I'm sorry, it's not open,' " said Maure Aronson , executive director of World Music/CRASHarts. ``I am enormously relieved and looking forward to the opening."
ICA officials said they were pleased that they wouldn't have to reschedule any art exhibitions. The December festivities will largely stay the same, they said, though STREB, a New York dance company, will no longer perform at the opening.
Activities on the ICA's outdoor plaza will largely depend on the weather. The average high temperature for Sept. 17 is 72 degrees; for Dec. 10, it's 43.
``We were always going to have a tent," said Medvedow. ``Now, we're going to heat our tent."
Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com. 