With the renovation of the former Art Academy building nearing completion, the Art Museum will soon embark on Phase B of its Vision Master Plan. Phase B will let the Art Museum use spaces that come free after the move to the Art Academy building to create new galleries, a new Art Education center, and a new special exhibition space. Altogether, the Art Museum will gain 16,000 square feet of new gallery space after Phase B is complete. There will also be a new Art Education center located in the heart of the Art Museum comprising 2,300 square feet of space. We hope you will share in our excitement as we plan for these major changes.

The Art Museum’s new Western & Southern Gallery, our new special exhibition space, will be located in the lower level of the Art Museum building in the spaces surrounding the DeWitt entrance. These spaces are where you will currently find the Castellini Foundation Room, Artworld, the Fifth Third Lecture Hall, and the Curatorial offices.  The new, 10,000 square foot Western & Southern Gallery will be accompanied by a mobile gift shop and a new entrance lobby from the DeWitt entrance of the Adams Emery Wing. Once finished, this space will be the largest special exhibition space that the Art Museum has ever had at its disposal, exceeding the amount of space currently housed in both Galleries 232 and 233 combined. Construction will commence in the summer of 2013 on this space and we hope to present our first exhibition there in the fall of 2014.

The Art Museum’s new Rosenthal Art Education Center will be situated in the heart of the Art Museum, where the former Mary R. Schiff Library and Archives was located. This space is larger than Artworld and will be surrounded by new galleries after staff offices are relocated to the Art Academy building and painting storage moves to the Kennedy Heights facility. The addition of new galleries will expand the Cincinnati Wing and the collections on display, while also greatly improving the Art Museum’s public circulation route. This improved circulation route will enable visitors to travel from gallery to gallery and experience our collections in a more cohesive way. Renovation work in the new gallery spaces and Art Education center will start in the fall of 2013 with an expected completion date of fall 2014.