Brandeis University is planning to do what it calls “major renovations” to its Rose Art Museum over the summer in preparation for the celebration of the museum’s 50th anniversary next fall, the school has announced.
The project, as the school describes it, would primarily be an update of the original museum building, and would begin around of the end of this month. The main changes would be the removal of the reflecting pond on the museum’s lower level and removal of a wall and reception desk immediately inside the main door to allow more immediate views of art for viewers entering the building. (Details below.)
The Rose has been under a cloud since then Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz and other school leaders threatened to close the museum and sell off its collection because of the school’s financial problems in January 2009. After an international outcry, the school did not follow through with those plans, and the museum has remained open, though it has struggled to borrow art for new exhibitions as artists have been leery of being seen as supporting or ignoring the school’s threat to the Rose. A lawsuit brought by three Rose overseers–Jonathan Lee of Brookline, Meryl Rose of Swampscott and Lois Foster of Boston–to prevent the sale of Rose artworks continues in Suffolk Probate and Family Court in Boston, with the next hearing scheduled for April 26.
At a Brandeis forum on the arts last week, Brandeis President Frederick Lawrence, who took over for Reinharz in January 2011, said the Rose Art Museum is “an important asset to the school. … No art has been sold, and it’s certainly not my intention to do so,” according to a report in the Brandeis student newspaper The Brandeis Hoot. This is, of course, not a promise not to sell off art from the Rose collection, but it’s something. And the renovations could be seen as a concrete statement of a renewed commitment by Brandeis to the Rose. Time will tell.
The Waltham, Massachusetts, school says planned Rose Museum improvements include: “replacement of the front curtain wall with new, more energy-efficient glass, creation of a vestibule area to better maintain stable interior temperatures, relocation of the current reception desk and entryway wall so that, in [Brandeis Vice President for Planning and Institutional Research Dan] Feldman’s words, ‘when you walk in you will really see the museum open before you,’ installation of a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, removal of the shallow pond on the lower level of the building, new railing around the main staircase, installation of new ceilings, floors and LED lighting systems.” As of yesterday morning, Brandeis had not yet filed plans with the city of Waltham building department. The school says renovations are being funded by a donation from Sandra and Gerald S. Fineberg.
The Rose’s current exhibit “WaterWays” is scheduled to run through April 3. Brandeis says the exhibit “Regarding Painting,” which is scheduled to be on view through May 22 in the newer Lois Foster Wing, will remain open through mid-June and will be accessed through a temporary entrance.