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Founded in 1917, the Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM) has outstanding holdings of nearly 12,000 works of art that provide a comprehensive overview of the history of art. The current building renovation effort will not only significantly improve the museum's physical plant and quality of collections care, but will also help continue our ninety-year tradition of supporting education at Oberlin College and for the broader community.
Project Overview
Since 2005, museum staff members have worked closely with Oberlin College’s senior administrators and Office of Facilities Planning and Construction to plan for the replacement of the AMAM's thirty-year old mechanical system with a new one that will provide for the museum's complex climate control requirements. Our partners in this effort are Samuel Anderson Architects (SAA) of New York City and McClure Engineering of St. Louis. Their extensive experience with comparable projects for such institutions as the Harvard University Art Museums, the Morgan Library and Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and Colonial Williamsburg is critical to the success of our project.
The AMAM renovation presents an exciting opportunity to implement the highest principles of sustainable ("green") design. The design team is working with Oberlin to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, making the AMAM one of the first academic museums to actively pursue this goal for an historic building.
In addition to the new mechanical system, the AMAM is currently seeking to raise funds for several associated facilities needs, including gallery upgrades, renovation and expansion of art storage, cleaning and restoration of the King Sculpture Court ceiling, installation of front and back vestibules to maintain climate control, and new lighting for the galleries.
Significance
These initiatives are vital to maintaining the proper preservation and presentation of the museum’s outstanding collection while simultaneously supporting Oberlin's commitment to sustainable design. The museum’s success in inspiring students to study art—communicated sensitively and intelligently by museum professionals and a dedicated faculty—is evident in the many outstanding Oberlin alumni who have become art historians, museum professionals, collectors, and artists. The museum also reaches a broad local, regional, and national audience, welcoming thousands of schoolchildren and other visitors each year.
We must ensure that the AMAM continues to provide deep educational and aesthetic experiences for everyone—and these vital upgrades to our physical plant are a necessary fact of life for historic buildings and outstanding collections such as ours.
For ways to donate to help the AMAM build a secure foundation for the museum’s future, please contact the museum’s director, Stephanie Wiles, at (440) 775-8663 or stephanie.wiles@oberlin.edu.
ART STORAGE SPACES
Re-housing the AMAM collections in new and renovated storage areas will increase the museum's capacity to safely store paintings and objects by seventy-eight percent, alleviating overcrowded conditions and making more artworks available for study by museum staff, Oberlin College faculty and students, outside researchers, and the general public. The installation of modern, compact-storage systems and state-of-the-art furniture will also provide room for the collection to grow, which is critical to the AMAM's mission as a teaching museum.
Painting Storage:
Painting Storage, located in the 1977 Venturi building, will be renovated and reconfigured to provide more usable space. The addition of work surfaces will enable safe handling of artworks during examinations and preparations for exhibitions and/or loans. Inadequate incandescent lighting will be replaced with suspended linear flourescent fixtures with direct and indirect distribution and sleeves for filtering ultraviolet light.
Painting and Object Storage:
Object Storage, located in the 1917 Cass Gilbert building, is currently used for sculpture, furniture, ceramics, and other three-dimensional objects. This space will be reconfigured to create additional storage for paintings and a small number of large-scale contemporary sculptures. A work surface will be installed, and lighting will be upgraded.
New Storage:
A new storage space will be created beneath the Sculpture Court in the 1917 Cass Gilbert building, adjacent to current Object Storage. A challenging undertaking, this project includes excavating an existing dirt floor and working around a dense grid of columns. As in the other storage areas, work spaces will be constructed here and lighting upgraded. New storage units will be installed for small objects, including coins, and extremely fragile objects, such as early 20th-century glass. This space will also house both large and small sculptures, as well as textiles.
Art Rental Storage:
The AMAM's separate Art Rental Collection of nearly 400 works is available for rental by Oberlin College students, faculty, staff and the general public. Included are paintings, lithographs, etchings, and sculptures by such artists as Renoir, Picasso, Goya, Matisse, Toulouse-Latrec, Chagall, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Pollock, and Dali. The collection is dynamic, with works by emerging artists added frequently. One of Oberlin's most beloved - and most publicized - programs, Art Rental not only inspires students from all disciplines to learn about art, it also teaches the importance of proper handling and care. Currently housed in Paintings Storage, the Art Rental Collection will be moved to the second floor of the 1917 Cass Gilbert building, to a space adjacent to the Ripin Print Gallery (where Art Rental takes place each fall and spring).
CLEANING AND RESTORATION OF THE MURALS AND CEILING IN THE KING SCULPTURE COURT
As part of the original design for the 1917 building, Cass Gilbert hired painter Frederick J. Wiley to decorate the upper walls and ceiling of the museum's Hazel B. King Sculpture Court. The coffered ceiling is enlivened with animal and foliage designs, while the upper walls feature verses written by the American transcendentalist Christopher Peter Cranch (1813-1892). The condition of the decorations has been seriously compromised by darkening and severe paint losses, particularly on the upper walls. The paintings have never been restored since their completion in 1917. The preservation and restoration project will be undertaken by the non-profit Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) of Cleveland.
Individual or Oberlin College Class donations will be recognized on a prominent plaque located on the ground floor of the Sculpture Court.
INSTALLATION OF FRONT AND BACK VESTIBULES TO MAINTAIN CLIMATE CONTROL
The architects and mechanical engineers for the project have advised the AMAM that in order to enhance security and maintain the proper conditions made possible by the new climate control system, the museum should install front and back vestibules. Currently, the front door of the museum opens directly into exhibition spaces, while the back door opens immediately adjacent to collection spaces. An interesting fact is that even before a climate control system was introduced in the museum during the Venturi renovation, in 1917 Cass Gilbert had designed a seasonal vestibule (never built) for the front entrance to mitigate the temperature and humidity spikes present during specific times of the year.
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