Since the Barnes Foundation moved its galleries out of Lower
Merion to the Parkway in downtown Philadelphia, the Woodmere Art Museum sees an
opportunity: to be the next go-to suburban museum in a pastoral setting.
On Thursday evening the Woodmere, a 19th century stone
mansion in Chestnut Hill, is hosting an open house to share with the public its
intentions for the future. It will also solicit feedback.
The Woodmere has hired architect Matthew Baird to design a
long-range master plan for the future of the building and its 6-acre property.
Baird has not yet created that plan (he hopes to deliver in the fall of 2014)
but the Woodmere has definite ideas of what it wants.
"Woodmere's founder [Charles Knox Smith] strongly
believed that art and nature, together, were a path to divinity," said
director William Valerio. "We still believe that is, basically, right. We
talk about it in different terms, but I would love to see the Woodmere
experiences integrated into the landscape around it."
The property looked much different in Charles Knox Smith's
day. There were greenhouses, indoor conservatories, a kitchen garden, a stable,
and the absence of a surrounding neighborhood.
Now all of that is gone, although the stable still exists –
barely. The houses that have since been developed between the mansion and the
Wissahickon Creek watershed disrupt drainage. The lawn around the house can
become a swamp in heavy rain.
Valerio would like to see those outdoor gardens come back,
with sculpture (maybe even the Harry Bertoia fountain that once graced the old
West Philadelphia Civic Center, now languishing in a city storage
facility) and inside more exhibition
space and a small auditorium.
"There is a portion of the building that was built in
the 1950s that I call The Shoebox," said Valerio. "It's shoved into
the elbow between the 19th century part and the early 20th century part. It's
pretty dysfunctional in that special way that 1950s architecture can be."
Both Valerio and Baird will be at the open house Thursday
evening to present their vision of the future of the museum, and solicit both
feedback and civic investment. Valerio would like the neighbors of the museum
to have a say in what the institution should be.
Source: Newsworks.org
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