INDIANA UNIVERSITY ESKENAZI MUSEUM OF ART RENOVATION | 112,000 GSF | Bloomington, IN | 2019 | Susan T Rodriguez (Design Partner, Ennead Architects) in collaboration with Browning Day
Indiana University’s Eskenazi Museum of Art, a 1982 I. M. Pei-designed building featuring the architect’s signature triangles and light filled atrium, reopened its doors in the Fall of 2019 following an extensive renovation process. As a fresh canvas for the museum’s more than 45,000 objects, ranging from ancient gold jewelry to paintings by modern masters, the renovation creates a new center for education, conservation and curatorial studies, including three new art study rooms, updated administrative offices, a new café and a sky bridge connecting the east and west wings of the building. The extensive collections represent “nearly every art-producing culture throughout history.” (Eskenazi Museum of Art) The removal of window tinting and installation of a sidewalk in front of the building reveal the museum within creates more transparency to the Indiana University community and extends the museum to the campus landscape. The newly renovated galleries offer more intuitive navigation, high-speed Wi-Fi, interpretive strategies encouraging more attentive viewings and connections to the collections, and enhanced lighting and focus areas to highlight collection themes. It now hosts 11,000 college and graduate students while providing learning and programming for local K-12 students. The renovated museum is dedicated to engaging students, faculty, artists, scholars, alumni and the wider public through the cultivation of new ideas and scholarship, underscoring the original vision of its founders, Herman B. Wells and Henry Radford Hope, and solidifies the museum’s position as one of the preeminent teaching museums in the country for generations to come.
Photo Credit Brad Feinknopf, Susan Rodriguez
IndyStar Article
Dezeen Article
The Architect’s Newspaper Article
