RISD plans a glittering launch for its museum expansion
PROVIDENCE -- A five-story expansion at the Rhode Island School of Design's museum will open in September 2008 with a new exhibit by glass sculptor Dale Chihuly.
The Chace Center will provide a 43,000-square-foot extension to the RISD Museum, one of the region's premier art museums, and create exhibit space intended for blockbuster art displays.
"Imagine what we'll be able to do over the next 20 years," museum director Hope Alswang said yesterday after leading a press tour of the construction site. "It's breathtaking for us."
Chihuly, a Seattle-based glassblower who received a master's degree from RISD in 1968 and established the glass program there, is known for his colorfully intricate glass works -- sometimes taking the form of sea creatures, plants, or trees. He is creating an original work that will be displayed in the new building's 5,000-square-foot exhibition space.
He designed the colorful glass ceiling in the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and a "Crystal Tree of Light" for the White House Millennium Celebration. His ambitious series of installations in Jerusalem includes a massive wall of ice.
Chihuly has not told the museum exactly what he plans, but is shipping -- on four tractor trailers -- 22,000 pieces of glass from the West Coast, Alswang said.
"When he asked me what I wanted, I said I want it to be really, really magical," she said. "And he laughed and he said, 'You know, everything I do is magical.' "
A complementary exhibit will feature work by other glass artists who are alumni of the art and design school.
An opening ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 27, 2008. At the same time, a traveling exhibit from illustrator David Macaulay -- also an alumnus and the author of the 1988 book, "The Way Things Work" -- will open at the main RISD museum.
The museum is also planning a 2009 exhibit on French artist Edouard Manet for the new space, and a multimedia exhibit in 2010 on Jerusalem in ancient times.
The Chace Center was designed by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, whose other works include a new extension at the Prado Museum in Madrid and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.
Besides the new exhibition space, the center will include a roughly 200-seat auditorium and gift shop as well as studios and classrooms. The museum's 22,000-object collection of prints, drawings, and photography will be moved to the center, freeing up room for the museum's entire 20th-century collection to be displayed for the first time together in one space.
A glass bridge will connect the center to the main museum building, which opened in 1926 and houses more than 80,000 works. 