http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/
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http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/story/0,4567,113997,00.html
NEW YORK - The Brooklyn Museum is reopening its front entrance plaza to the public this weekend after a two-year, US$63 million (S$106 million) construction project that created a new glass pavilion and a grassy seating area.
The Brooklyn Museum of Art reopens this weekend with a new front glass entrance.
Admission to the museum is free on Saturday and Sunday, and visitors will be able to view three new exhibitions as well as the renovated Hall of the Americas, which focuses on Meso-American, South American and Native American work.
But the project's main attraction is the new approach to the museum, which reversed the subway entrance, knocked out walls and removed old doors.
'This was about how to better express the museum's mission - our determination to really welcome everyone into the building,' museum director Arnold Lehman said on Wednesday.
The subway station used to empty out onto Eastern Parkway and now has been reconfigured to face the museum. The museum lobby was formerly reached through a series of heavy doors at the base of the building, where visitors arrived after walking through a driveway.
Now the building's front is a contemporary glass pavilion attached to the original structure. The old doors are gone, leaving a glimpse of exposed brick where they once were and a clear view through the lobby to the back entrance.
A plaza was created in front of the entrance, with grassy places to sit and cherry trees about to blossom. On either side of the glass lobby are wide, bleacherlike risers joined at the top by a portico connected to the museum's upper floors.
The idea is to encourage people to linger, said Joan Darragh, vice director of planning and architecture.
'The museum has certain hours it's open, but even after hours it's now very accessible to people,' she said.
'We wanted to create a really wonderful new civic place, for people to congregate, for people to think of us as their own, a place that eliminates the barrier between the outdoors and the museum,' Mr Lehman said.
By making the entrance more welcoming, museum officials hope more people, such as students at area schools, will be encouraged to come in.
'This is a very beautiful historic facade, an important piece of American architecture, but in today's world, it reads to kids as an intimidating government building,' Ms Darragh said of the former building front.
Once inside, visitors have three new exhibitions to view. On display will be 'Manifest Destiny,' a mural by Alexis Rockman that presents a vision of the New York area of Brooklyn hundreds of years in the future; 'Patrick Kelly: A Retrospective' that surveys the work of the clothes designer; and the centerpiece of the weekend, 'Open House: Working in Brooklyn,' a survey of artists working in the borough.
More than 300 pieces from 200 artists who have studios in Brooklyn will be on view.
'It seemed to be logical to do it now,' Ms Charlotta Kotik, curator of the exhibition, said. 'This is a museum very focused on the community and this is an important part of the community.'
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