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.
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