ENTERTAINMENT

Sneak peek: The renovated Speed Art Museum

Elizabeth Kramer
@arts_bureau

With the reopening of the Speed Art Museum four months away, workers are busy completing construction inside and outside of the museum’s new home, which incorporates its original 1927 building with new building spaces on the north and south sides. The museum closed its doors at 2035 S. Third St. three years ago to make way for the $50 million renovation and expansion.

Museum patrons will get a look inside the new north building on Saturday at the museum’s annual patron circle party it has coined "The Big Reveal."

But on Wednesday, Speed CEO Ghislain d’Humieres and Eric Doninger, a museum trustee and chair of the building committee, provided a tour of the north building and updates on plans.

“This really is a three-dimensional art piece,” said Doninger of the building structures designed by why Architecture, led by Kulapat Yantrasast.

Doninger described the new Speed Museum as a project with four components. Among them is the renovated original 1927 building, with one new building to the north and another to the south. Spaces added to the original museum in intervening years and situated behind the 1927 building have also undergone renovation.

Outside, the renovation extends to an art park which will have a collection of large works, including the massive “Wishbone” sculpture by artist Mark Handforth that the museum installed last month.

“The art isn’t just inside, it will really spill out,” d’Humieres said.

Over the next several months, the museum plans to install more works in the art park. Some of them are from the museum’s longstanding holdings, such as influential artist Henry Moore’s 1979 sculpture “Reclining Figure: Angles.” Others will be site-specific commissions by internationally renowned artists.

Visitors will enter from the east side of the north building where a long hallway starts and extends to the new complex’s south side. The hallway also includes a bridge that leads into the 1927 building. That bridge, d’Humieres said, will overlook an open basement space planned as the multi-generational arts education area called ArtSparks.

But the main space of the north building is the atrium, where d’Humieres said a new site-specific commission by American artist Spencer Finch will be installed.

Finch, who created the only work of commissioned art for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, is creating a work that will reference a tree and emit light to simulate the sunrise in Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace of Hodgenville.

Features in the atrium include the glass that will encase the building. It is designed with speckles visible from the inside. But from the outside, the glass will be reflective, Doninger said. The walls, he added, are created from a special concrete that looks like wood grain.

Also in the atrium is a hanging staircase leading from the first to second floors under which is a wall of glass that acts as a kind of window below the steps. Each of those steps is illuminated from below by a light that is difficult to detect during the day. But at night, Doninger said, that design will create a light that will glow and radiate both indoors and outdoors.

In addition to the atrium, the north building includes two upper floors which will be filled with contemporary art and have a space for touring exhibitions when the museum opens.

Doninger and d’Humieres said the interior of the museum’s new café will include custom-made tiles by Louisville Stoneware and designs by Yantrasast.

In August, the museum announced that the café will be operated by Susan Hershberg, the restaurateur behind Wiltshire on Market, Wiltshire Pantry Bakery and a catering operation.

“The original museum was inward focused. But now look at how open it is,” Doninger said.

d’Humieres said he foresees that open design and the art park will attract a diverse range of people throughout Louisville to picnic in the museum’s art park and venture indoors to see the artwork.

Reach reporter Elizabeth Kramer at (502) 582-4682 and ekramer@courier-journal.com. Follow her on Twitter @arts_bureau and on Facebook at Elizabeth Kramer - Arts Writer. 

Future key events for the Speed Art Museum

Saturday, Nov. 7: The Big Reveal Party, the museum’s annual patron circle party inside the new contemporary north building. The party will feature art including a laser show by Ryan Daly and Lapis Laser, a museum pop-up store and temporary tattoos of notable Speed art works.

November: Renovation of 1927 and 1983 buildings completed.

December: Museum staff moves back to offices.

January 1: North and south buildings to be completed along with the cinema, which will be part of the south building.

January: Art to be installed in the 1927 and 1983 buildings.

February: Art to be installed in the north and south buildings.

March 1: Water features completed around the building.

March 12. Reopening with the museum remaining open for 30 hours of events and festivities immediately following an opening ceremony. Site specific art commissions also will be installed.

September 10: First major special exhibition.