Gallery Building Opens
The faculty are in. The "curatorial classroom," the seminar room, and the high-tech auditorium are all ready. The glass walls sparkle around the two-story lobby. The skylights in the sawtooth roof brighten the wide, gleaming exhibition space, with its high trusses and oak floor.
The Graham Gund Gallery, Kenyon's newest building, has opened its doors. The 31,000-square-foot building gives the art history program a new home while providing modern, ample exhibition facilities that will enable the College to do far more than ever before in showcasing and exploring the visual arts.
The Gund Gallery will unveil its inaugural exhibit later this fall, as part of a weekend of dedication festivities. But, with the beginning of the 2011-12 academic year, the building is open for business, including classes. Fall courses in both art history and film are scheduled for the building.
Designed by noted architect and Kenyon alumnus Graham Gund '63, whose other contributions to the campus range from the science quad to the athletic center, the new building will serve as an academic facility, an arts center, and a museum-a resource for the entire campus community and the surrounding area as well.
With art history classes taking place just footsteps from art exhibits, possibilities multiply. "It will be wonderful to have the gallery right here," said Professor of Art History Sarah Blick, who chairs the department. "We're looking forward to collaborating with the museum staff and excited about the opportunities for students."
Those opportunities will include an internship program that will eventually employ twelve to fifteen students from a range of disciplines, according to Natalie Marsh, gallery director. The gallery will host host traveling exhibitions and develop internally curated shows in the spirit of interdisciplinary inquiry. The skylit, 6,209-square-foot "flexible gallery" can be subdivided into smaller exhibition spaces. "We will typically have a large feature show combined with smaller, shorter-run exhibitions, often tied to the curriculum," said Marsh.
Exhibitions can be bigger, more diverse, and more ambitious than ever before, not only because of the more spacious gallery but also because of the building's behind-the-scenes support areas. Adjoining the gallery is a large exhibit-preparation room, served by a freight elevator that can hold five tons. The basement level houses another prep area as well as a very large collection storage room.
