Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia will officially break ground on the expansion to the Georgia Museum of Art on Tuesday, March 3 at 2 p.m. The 30,000-square-foot, $20 million addition was funded entirely through external, non-state funds including challenge grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation and from private giving during the Archway to Excellence campaign. The NEH Grant specifically funds the museum’s planned humanities research centers.
The addition will also include gallery space to house the permanent collection, additional storage space, an expanded lobby and a sculpture garden. Completion is expectedin 2010, with the grand reopening in early 2011.
UGA President Michael F. Adams will preside at the groundbreaking event. William U. Eiland, director of the museum, and Shannon I. Candler, chair of the Board of Advisors of the museum, willspeak.
During the construction of the addition and renovation of current space, the museum will embark on a 2-year series of offsite events and exhibitions called “GMOA on the Move,” with a kickoff party also on March 3, from 7 to 9 p.m.
GMOA on the Move will feature a series of events sponsored by the Young at Art committee of the Friends at the Georgia Museum of Art titled “The Art of,” celebrating creativity in areas beyond the traditional fine arts, such as gardening, cinema and more. Each event will take place at a venue that corresponds with the highlighted craft.
GMOA on the Move also will include Family Days, films and workshops in and around Athens, Art Adventures and a series of ongoing traveling exhibitions. For more information on GMOA on the Move, see http://www.uga.edu/gamuseum/press/press%20releases/Current/GMOAmoverelease.pdf.
For more information on the expansion, including elevations, see http://www.uga.edu/gamuseum/support/phase2.html.
