Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts launches its undulating Studio Gang design
Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts by Studio Gang opens in Little Rock, USA, blending new construction and renovation
![hero exterior in sunlight of Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts by Studio Gang](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/cTfg7xchr2Ns5aghRg7KBL-415-80.jpg)
Blending old and new, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts has just launched its undulating new design, courtesy of Jeanne Gang's Chicago-based Studio Gang. The cultural institution, located in Little Rock, USA, has been undergoing a thorough reimagining and is now ready to celebrate its new home and sustainable architecture – its complex now obtaining a Certified LEED Silver accreditation, no less.
Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts by Studio Gang
The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, which opens officially this Saturday, 22 April 2023, announced its new galleries have been endowed and named by Harriet and Warren Stephens. They will host a range of inaugural exhibitions from the museum's permanent collection, as well as temporary shows and site-specific installations.
Gang's team worked to create generous, characterful – yet purpose-appropriate –and light-filled halls for the art, while offering a 133,000 sq ft addition to the institution's restored, 1937 art deco façade and nine existing structures that form its overall complex.
The landmark project is aiming to strengthen its presence as an ever-important cultural destination in Little Rock and beyond, located in the city's oldest urban green space, MacArthur Park. The building, created by Studio Gang and landscape architects Scape, in collaboration with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, was designed to be open, accessible and welcoming, inviting the local community into its flexible spaces.
The redesign and new additions have rethought the existing structures' arrangement and functions – the original building had been extended and tweaked much over the years – with a goal to improve both its visibility and operation.
'Altogether the design embodies the museum's commitment to its community and its environs, strengthening its cultural and educational offerings and connecting visitors to each other, art, nature, and the city,' the architects at Studio Gang write.
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
IM Pei's Everson Museum of Art gets a modern makeover
The East Wing of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY has been given a contemporary refresh by emerging Los Angeles studio MILLIØNS
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Black Modernism’s lesser-known, at-risk architecture gems gain a lifeline
Conserving Black Modernism announces vital funding to save and preserve overlooked and endangered buildings by African American architects and designers
By Bridget Downing Published
-
Step into the Blanton Museum of Art's reimagined public realm by Snøhetta in Austin
Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas is completed and reveals its reimagined public realm and plaza designed by Snøhetta
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
This New York Townhouse renovation is a lesson in contemporary minimalism
TenBerke’s carefully considered New York townhouse is the reimagining of a century-old Manhattan structure that reframes vertical living
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Visit The Frost House, a lesser-known modernist architecture marvel in Michigan City
The Frost House is a lesser-known midcentury architecture gem in Michigan City, Indiana; we took the tour as the property goes on the market
By Audrey Henderson Published
-
Broadway designer Scott Pask’s Arizona retreat is a scene-stealing discovery
Scott Pask invites us inside his Arizona retreat, nestled in the foothills overlooking Tucson – a place to reboot, recharge and commune with nature
By Michael Webb Published
-
Upstate New York retreat Ridge House evokes land art
Ridge House in upstate New York, the work of Brooklyn-based studio Worrell Yeung, is at one with the surrounding countryside
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Rafael de Cárdenas’ first ground-up project is a forever home with waterfront views and hidden treasures
Rafael de Cárdenas reveals his latest completed project in the Pacific Northwest, a family home of calming spaces that bleed the outside in, and ten years in the making
By Ellie Stathaki Published