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125-556: The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough of Brooklyn . At 560,000 square feet (52,000 m), the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heights , Crown Heights , Flatbush , and Park Slope neighborhoods of Brooklyn, the museum's Beaux-Arts building was designed by McKim, Mead & White . The Brooklyn Museum

250-470: A sword , could be hired from shops outside. The treasuries of cathedrals and large churches, or parts of them, were often set out for public display and veneration. Many of the grander English country houses could be toured by the respectable for a tip to the housekeeper, during the long periods when the family were not in residence. Special arrangements were made to allow the public to see many royal or private collections placed in galleries, as with most of

375-479: A 12-year renovation of the Asian galleries. To make way for additional exhibition space, in early 2024 the museum sold off 200 objects and the contents of four period rooms. In January 2024, the museum opened its Toby Devan Lewis Education Center, which contains three studios and a gallery. The museum started using a new logo that September. The Brooklyn Museum building is a steel frame structure clad in masonry, designed in

500-472: A Persian art gallery opened two months later. The remodeled entrance was officially dedicated on October 5, 1935. That December, the museum's medieval art gallery opened. A gallery for industrial art was also proposed behind the western wing but was not built. The museum's remodeling was completed in October 1937. Several collections, including Egyptian and Assyrian art, Renaissance art, and textiles were displayed to

625-524: A bequest. The Kunstmuseum Basel , through its lineage which extends back to the Amerbach Cabinet , which included a collection of works by Hans Holbein the Younger and purchased by the city of Basel in 1661, is considered to be the first museum of art open to the public in the world. In the second half of the 18th century, many private collections of art were opened to the public, and during and after

750-469: A coalition of Brooklyn-based arts organizations. The gallery occupied a narrow corridor at ground level. Henri Ghent, the director of the Community Gallery, estimated in 1970 that "perhaps 100,000" additional patrons had been attracted to the museum after the gallery opened, including black patrons who had never before visited a museum. The Brooklyn Museum continued to experience financial shortfalls in

875-449: A collaboration of museums and galleries that are more interested with the categorization of art. They are interested in the potential use of folksonomy within museums and the requirements for post-processing of terms that have been gathered, both to test their utility and to deploy them in useful ways. The steve.museum is one example of a site that is experimenting with this collaborative philosophy. The participating institutions include

1000-402: A dedicated space adjoining the museum; the gallery was popular among guests but did not have enough funding from the museum itself. By late 1973, twenty percent of the museum's staff professionals had resigned amid a dispute involving director Duncan F. Cameron 's firing of another employee, eventually prompting Cameron's own resignation that year. Further staff disputes complicated the search for

1125-513: A higher bearing capacity is placed on top of the obstacle in order to carry the weight of the roadway or railway and reduce differential settlement. The practice of cut-and-fill was widely utilized to construct tracks along rolling terrain across the British Isles. It was later applied in the construction of new dwellings for returning veterans in Ireland at the end of World War II. This application

1250-489: A low saucer dome . The modern main entrance, dating to Polshek's 2004 renovation, consists of a glass pavilion with four metal pylons, as well as a semicircular plaza just outside. A set of brick piers , which had supported the original entrance staircase, was repurposed into a brick arch in 2004. The pavilions at either end of the Eastern Parkway facade protrude only slightly from the facade and contain engaged columns in

1375-433: A major factor in social mobility (for example, getting a higher-paid, higher-status job). The argument states that certain art museums are aimed at perpetuating aristocratic and upper class ideals of taste and excludes segments of society without the social opportunities to develop such interest. The fine arts thus perpetuate social inequality by creating divisions between different social groups. This argument also ties in with

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1500-485: A master plan in March 1986. The plan involved doubling the amount of exhibition space in the building from 450,000 to 830,000 square feet (42,000 to 77,000 m). At the time, the museum could only exhibit about five percent of its collection simultaneously, as its building was one-sixth as large as originally planned. The museum was to expand its storage, classroom, and conservation facilities and add an auditorium. Buck met with

1625-750: A new "Community Gallery", supported at first by the New York State Council on the Arts ; he worked at the museum till 1972. Ghent's first exhibition, Contemporary Afro-American Arts (1968), included artists Joe Overstreet , Kay Brown , Frank Smith, and Otto Neals . In 1999–2000, the Sensation exhibition of Charles Saatchi 's collection provoked controversy for its inclusion of works such as Chris Ofili 's The Holy Virgin Mary . The exhibition prompted then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani to threaten to withhold city funding from

1750-402: A number of online art catalogues and galleries that have been developed independently of the support of any individual museum. Many of these, like American Art Gallery, are attempts to develop galleries of artwork that are encyclopedic or historical in focus, while others are commercial efforts to sell the work of contemporary artists. A limited number of such sites have independent importance in

1875-589: A replacement director, and many employees went on strike in 1974 because they wanted to form a labor union. By the mid-1970s, there were plans to split the Brooklyn Children's Museum and the Brooklyn Museum Art School from the Brooklyn Museum. At the time, the museum received $ 1.5 million per year from the city. Four galleries for Korean and Japanese art opened at the museum in October 1974, and

2000-575: A series of special exhibits and events in 2024. The Brooklyn Museum has been building a collection of Egyptian artifacts since the beginning of the twentieth century, incorporating both collections purchased from others, such as that of American Egyptologist Charles Edwin Wilbour , whose heirs also donated his library to become the museum's Wilbour Library of Egyptology, and objects obtained during museum-sponsored archeological excavations. The Egyptian collection includes objects ranging from statuary, such as

2125-581: A specified grade over the route. In addition to minimising construction cost, other factors influence the placement of cut or filled sections. For example, air pollutants can concentrate in the valleys created by the cut section. Conversely, noise pollution is mitigated by cut sections since an effective blockage of line-of-sight sound propagation is created by the depressed roadway design. The environmental effects of fill sections are typically favorable with respect to air pollution dispersal, but in respect to sound propagation , exposure of nearby residents

2250-666: Is generally considered to have been the first art museum in the United States. It was originally housed in the Renwick Gallery , built in 1859. Now a part of the Smithsonian Institution , the Renwick housed William Wilson Corcoran 's collection of American and European art. The building was designed by James Renwick Jr. and finally completed in 1874. It is located at 1661 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Renwick designed it after

2375-402: Is generally increased, since sound walls and other forms of sound path blockage are less effective in this geometry. The reasons for creating fills include the reduction of grade along a route or the elevation of the route above water, swampy ground, or areas where snow drifts frequently collect. Fills can also be used to cover tree stumps, rocks, or unstable soil, in which case material with

2500-559: Is provided by a dedicated print room located within the museum. Murals or mosaics often remain where they have been created ( in situ ), although many have also been removed to galleries. Various forms of 20th-century art, such as land art and performance art , also usually exist outside a gallery. Photographic records of these kinds of art are often shown in galleries, however. Most museums and large art galleries own more works than they have room to display. The rest are held in reserve collections , on or off-site. A sculpture garden

2625-557: Is similar to an art gallery, presenting sculpture in an outdoor space. Sculpture has grown in popularity with sculptures installed in open spaces on both a permanent and temporary basis. Most larger paintings from about 1530 onwards were designed to be seen either in churches or palaces, and many buildings built as palaces now function successfully as art museums. By the 18th century additions to palaces and country houses were sometimes intended specifically as galleries for viewing art, and designed with that in mind. The architectural form of

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2750-538: Is the site of the annual Brooklyn Artists Ball which has included celebrity hosts such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Liv Tyler . Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic , the Brooklyn Museum had an endowment of $ 108 million, but the museum applied for federal funding through the Paycheck Protection Program after its endowment declined by one-fifth in 2020. Amid the pandemic and its negative impact on museum revenue,

2875-502: Is to shape identity and memory, cultural heritage, distilled narratives and treasured stories. Many art museums throughout history have been designed with a cultural purpose or been subject to political intervention. In particular, national art galleries have been thought to incite feelings of nationalism . This has occurred in both democratic and non-democratic countries, although authoritarian regimes have historically exercised more control over administration of art museums. Ludwig Justi

3000-733: The Alte Pinakothek , Munich) was opened to the public in 1779 and the Medici collection in Florence around 1789 (as the Uffizi Gallery). The opening of the Musée du Louvre during the French Revolution in 1793 as a public museum for much of the former French royal collection marked an important stage in the development of public access to art by transferring the ownership to a republican state; but it

3125-685: The Brooklyn Academy of Music , the Brooklyn Botanic Garden , and the Brooklyn Children's Museum , until these organizations all became independent in the 1970s. Brooklyn mayor Charles A. Schieren agreed in January 1895 to issue $ 300,000 per year in bonds for the Brooklyn Institute museum's construction. Initially, only a single wing and pavilion on the western portion of the museum's site, measuring 210 by 50 feet (64 by 15 m) across,

3250-666: The Brooklyn Apprentices' Library in Brooklyn Heights . The library was formally incorporated November 24, 1824, and the cornerstone of the library's first building was laid in 1825 on Henry and Cranberry Street. The Library moved into the Brooklyn Lyceum building on Washington Street in 1841. The two institutions merged into the Brooklyn Institute in 1843; the institute offered exhibitions of painting and sculpture and lectures on diverse subjects. The Washington Street building

3375-625: The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars , many royal collections were nationalized, even where the monarchy remained in place, as in Spain and Bavaria . In 1753, the British Museum was established and the Old Royal Library collection of manuscripts was donated to it for public viewing. In 1777, a proposal to the British government was put forward by MP John Wilkes to buy the art collection of

3500-738: The Guggenheim Museum in New York City by Frank Lloyd Wright , the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry , Centre Pompidou-Metz by Shigeru Ban , and the redesign of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by Mario Botta . Some critics argue these galleries defeat their purposes because their dramatic interior spaces distract the eye from the paintings they are supposed to exhibit. Museums are more than just mere 'fixed structures designed to house collections.' Their purpose

3625-608: The Guggenheim Museum , the Cleveland Museum of Art , the Metropolitan Museum of Art , and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . There are relatively few local/regional/national organizations dedicated specifically to art museums. Most art museums are associated with local/regional/national organizations for the arts , humanities or museums in general. Many of these organizations are listed as follows: Cut and fill Cut sections of roadway or rail are areas where

3750-719: The Hagop Kevorkian Gallery. Art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art , usually from the museum 's own collection . It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although primarily concerned with visual art , art museums are often used as a venue for other cultural exchanges and artistic activities, such as lectures, jewelry, performance arts , music concerts, or poetry readings. Art museums also frequently host themed temporary exhibitions, which often include items on loan from other collections. An institution dedicated to

3875-540: The Late Medieval period onwards, areas in royal palaces, castles , and large country houses of the social elite were often made partially accessible to sections of the public, where art collections could be viewed. At the Palace of Versailles , entrance was restricted to people of certain social classes who were required to wear the proper apparel, which typically included the appropriate accessories, silver shoe buckles and

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4000-529: The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo . The phrase "art gallery" is also sometimes used to describe businesses which display art for sale, but these are not art museums. Throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions or political leaders and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces . Although these collections of art were not open to

4125-604: The Papacy , while the Vatican Museums , whose collections are still owned by the Pope, trace their foundation to 1506, when the recently discovered Laocoön and His Sons was put on public display. A series of museums on different subjects were opened over subsequent centuries, and many of the buildings of the Vatican were purpose-built as galleries. An early royal treasury opened to the public

4250-553: The mystification of fine arts . Research suggests that the context in which an artwork is being presented has significant influence on its reception by the audience, and viewers shown artworks in a museum rated them more highly than when displayed in a "laboratory" setting Most art museums have only limited online collections, but a few museums, as well as some libraries and government agencies, have developed substantial online catalogues. Museums, libraries, and government agencies with substantial online collections include: There are

4375-578: The neoclassical style by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White and built by the Carlin Construction Company. The original museum building is a New York City designated landmark and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in June 1978. The museum shares a large city block with Brooklyn's Central Library , Mount Prospect Park , and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to

4500-401: The 1970s, a number of political theorists and social commentators have pointed to the political implications of art museums and social relations. Pierre Bourdieu , for instance, argued that in spite the apparent freedom of choice in the arts, people's artistic preferences (such as classical music, rock, traditional music) strongly tie in with their social position. So called cultural capital is

4625-429: The 20 classical sculptures (10 Greek and 10 Roman) on the northern elevation, as well as five Persian and five Chinese sculptures on the side elevations. The eastern elevation of the facade faces Washington Avenue, where only the pavilion at the northern end was built. The rest of the eastern elevation is similar to that on Eastern Parkway, with pilasters dividing it vertically into seven bays . Unlike on Eastern Parkway,

4750-524: The African art galleries reopened in December 1976 following an expansion and renovation. The Brooklyn Museum also began renovating 21 American period rooms in 1976. Following a 1978 investigation into some of the museum's acquisitions, state attorney general Louis J. Lefkowitz recommended that the museum implement "a comprehensive code of ethics". The same year, the Brooklyn Museum partnered with Designgroup and

4875-579: The Board of Estimate appropriated $ 1.05 million for the new wings. McKim, Mead & White drew up new plans for wings F and G; by that September, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) was about to award contracts for the wings. A picture gallery opened at the museum in November 1925. The next month, museum officials dedicated the Ethnological Gallery, which was nicknamed "Rainbow House";

5000-535: The Brooklyn Museum's collection in the 1950s, as did the interior of a room in John D. Rockefeller Jr. 's Midtown Manhattan home. In 1967 the Federated Institutes of Cultural Enrichment (FICE), a coalition of Brooklyn-based arts organizations, demanded that the Brooklyn Museum exhibit more works by artists from the borough, especially African American artists. The museum then hired black curator Henri Ghent to direct

5125-496: The Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn officials hosted an architectural design competition for the building, eventually awarding the contract to McKim, Mead & White . The competition was characterized in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle as "one of the most important in the history of architecture", as the museum was to contain numerous divisions. The museum remained a subdivision of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, along with

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5250-524: The Crown" in November 2020. From June through September 2023, coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of Pablo Picasso 's death, the museum hosted It's Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby , curated by Hannah Gadsby ; though the exhibition was popular, it was also highly controversial. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Brooklyn Apprentices' Library's incorporation, the museum launched

5375-526: The Egyptian government to restore the Cairo Museum 's collection. Due to budget cuts, the Brooklyn Museum eliminated its Middle Eastern art division in 1979, despite the fact that the museum had frequently applied for federal grants in the preceding years, most of which had been approved from 1976 to 1978. Two of the museum's period rooms reopened in 1980 following a renovation. By then, director Michael Botwinick

5500-449: The Ionic order. The west and east wings are divided vertically by pilasters ; between each set of pilasters are windows with architraves . The entablature above the pilasters contains a frieze with inscribed names of figures who represent knowledge. The Eastern Parkway facade is topped by 20 monolithic figures on the cornice: one above each pilaster on the west and east wings, and four above

5625-587: The Louvre's Tuileries addition. At the time of its construction, it was known as "the American Louvre". University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in the West and East, making it a global practice. Although easily overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in

5750-711: The Marxist theory of mystification and elite culture . Furthermore, certain art galleries, such as the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris are situated in buildings of considerable emotional impact. The Louvre in Paris is for instance located in the former Royal Castle of the ancient regime , and is thus clearly designed with a political agenda. It has been argued that such buildings create feelings of subjugation and adds to

5875-602: The New York City government and derive part of their yearly funding from the city. It was also part of the Brooklyn Educational Cultural Alliance during the late 20th century. During the late 1980s, the museum was part of a group called Destination Brooklyn, which sought to attract visitors to Brooklyn; this initiative had stalled by the early 1990s. Franklin Hooper was the Brooklyn Institute's first director, serving for 25 years until his death in 1914. Hooper

6000-526: The US alone. This number, compared to other kinds of art museums, makes university art museums perhaps the largest category of art museums in the country. While the first of these collections can be traced to learning collections developed in art academies in Western Europe, they are now associated with and housed in centers of higher education of all types. The word gallery being originally an architectural term,

6125-433: The active lending-out of a museum's collected objects in order to enhance education at schools and to aid in the cultural development of individual members of the community. Finally, Dana saw branch museums throughout a city as a good method of making sure that every citizen has access to its benefits. Dana's view of the ideal museum sought to invest a wider variety of people in it, and was self-consciously not elitist. Since

6250-418: The art world. The large auction houses, such as Sotheby's , Bonhams , and Christie's , maintain large online databases of art which they have auctioned or are auctioning. Bridgeman Art Library serves as a central source of reproductions of artwork, with access limited to museums, art dealers , and other professionals or professional organizations. There are also online galleries that have been developed by

6375-513: The association allowed such sales to proceed for a two-year window through 2022 in response to the effects of the pandemic. The Brooklyn Museum's collection contains around 500,000 objects. In the twentieth century, Brooklyn Museum exhibitions sought to present an encyclopedic view of art and culture, with a focus on educating a broad public. By the 21st century, the Brooklyn Museum frequently hosted shows that promoted cultural diversity and, in particular, underrepresented demographic groups. In 1923,

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6500-444: The city's capital budget. Museum officials held an architectural design competition to redesign the west wing, attracting 103 competitors; they hired Arata Isozaki of James Stewart Polshek Partners that October. Isozaki's design retained much of McKim, Mead & White's original plan but included a "great hall" and trapezoidal courtyards, as well as an angled rear wall and an obelisk. Buck expressed optimism that media coverage of

6625-609: The collection include antiquities, specifically their collection of Egyptian antiquities spanning over 3,000 years. European , African , Oceanic , and Japanese art make for notable antiquities collections as well. American art is heavily represented, starting at the Colonial period. Artists represented in the collection include Mark Rothko , Edward Hopper , Norman Rockwell , Judy Chicago , Winslow Homer , Edgar Degas , Georgia O'Keeffe , and Max Weber . The Brooklyn Museum's origins date to August 1823, when Augustus Graham founded

6750-481: The creation of the observatory in 1907. The Brooklyn Institute awarded a construction contract for wings F and G, extending south of the central pavilion, to Benedetto & Egan in May 1911. Extending 120 feet (37 m) south and measuring 200 feet (61 m) wide, this addition was to contain a central court with a glass roof. That July, McKim, Mead & White filed plans for wings F and G. The Brooklyn Institute converted

6875-410: The design competition would attract additional visitors, even if the master plan was never completely carried out. The scope of the renovation grew quickly, with estimated costs reaching $ 200 million by early 1988. Iris and B. Gerald Cantor donated $ 3.5 million for the museum's auditorium in 1989, and the city gave another $ 2 million for other work. The Brooklyn Museum announced in 1990 that it would begin

7000-590: The display of art can be called an art museum or an art gallery, and the two terms may be used interchangeably. This is reflected in the names of institutions around the world, some of which are considered art galleries, such as the National Gallery in London and Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin , and some of which are considered museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and

7125-687: The display rooms in museums are often called public galleries . Also frequently, a series of rooms dedicated to specific historic periods (e.g. Ancient Egypt ) or other significant themed groupings of works (e.g. the gypsotheque or collection of plaster casts as in the Ashmolean Museum ) within a museum with a more varied collection are referred to as specific galleries, e.g. Egyptian Gallery or Cast Gallery . Works on paper, such as drawings , pastels , watercolors , prints , and photographs are typically not permanently displayed for reasons of conservation . Instead, public access to these materials

7250-414: The early 1970s. Due to a shortage of security guards, in mid-1971, museum officials announced that they would close the museum two days per week, allowing all galleries to remain open even with limited security. The museum also reopened its 23 period rooms that October after a yearlong closure, and they also opened a new period room, themed to a private study. Officials planned to move the Community Gallery to

7375-517: The elaborate decoration which so often clutters up the entrances of public building." Following a 2011 renovation, the lobby was redesigned as a double-height central gallery surrounded by 25-foot-tall (7.6 m) columns. The Brooklyn Museum is operated by a nonprofit of the same name, which was established in 1935. The museum is part of the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG), a group of institutions that occupy land or buildings owned by

7500-690: The entire building solely intended to be an art gallery was arguably established by Sir John Soane with his design for the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1817. This established the gallery as a series of interconnected rooms with largely uninterrupted wall spaces for hanging pictures and indirect lighting from skylights or roof lanterns . The late 19th century saw a boom in the building of public art galleries in Europe and America, becoming an essential cultural feature of larger cities. More art galleries rose up alongside museums and public libraries as part of

7625-399: The first phase of renovation, which was to cost $ 31 million. This involved converting the offices in the west wing to about 64,000 square feet (5,900 m) of gallery space for its Egyptian collection, as well as building storage space and an auditorium. The same year, budget cuts prompted museum officials to lay off employees and close its doors on Mondays. The auditorium opened in 1991; at

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7750-468: The formal opening of the museum. The Brooklyn Institute's museum formally opened on October 2, 1897, and was one of the last major structures built in the city of Brooklyn before the formation of the City of Greater New York in 1898. The Brooklyn Institute approved the construction of the central entrance pavilion in May 1899, and Hooper requested $ 600,000 for this addition the next month. The four-story structure

7875-484: The founder of the Newark Museum , saw the traditional art museum as a useless public institution, one that focused more on fashion and conformity rather than education and uplift. Indeed, Dana's ideal museum would be one best suited for active and vigorous use by the average citizen, located near the center of their daily movement. In addition, Dana's conception of the perfect museum included a wider variety of objects than

8000-461: The gallery was designed by curator Stewart Culin . A Japanese art gallery opened at the museum in April 1927, and the museum's Swiss Gothic, German, and Venetian galleries opened that May. Construction of the Brooklyn Museum stalled in 1928 after years of attempts to complete it. At the time, only 28 of the 80 proposed statues atop the building's facade had been installed, and the main north–south corridor

8125-424: The general public, they were often made available for viewing for a section of the public. In classical times , religious institutions began to function as an early form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects, such as Julius Caesar , often donated their collections to temples. It is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. In Europe, from

8250-439: The ground-level auditorium, was built during the mid-20th century as a modern-style space. Although then-director Philip Newell Youtz was the architect of record , the lobby's design may have been influenced by William Lescaze , who was Youtz's friend. The lobby, containing black-glass panels and indirect lighting, was described in the 1939 WPA Guide to New York City as "an example of the best in modern architecture... devoid of

8375-522: The heads of all of the museum's departments to determine how much exhibit and storage space they needed. The museum also planned a new entrance from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which had twice as many annual visitors; the Botanic Garden entrance had been planned by McKim, Mead & White but never executed. The project was expected to cost $ 50 million to $ 100 million, which was to be funded by

8500-441: The institute's long-term plan to convert the museum into a cultural center. The museum's Egyptian galleries began undergoing renovations the same year. The renovation of the Egyptian galleries, the first phase of the museum's $ 3.5 million overhaul, was finished in November 1953. Brown, Lawford & Forbes designed a rear annex for the museum in 1955. The museum's furniture, sculpture, and watercolor galleries reopened in 1957 following

8625-504: The lack of space in the building, the lobby and auditorium were being used to exhibit artwork. The Brooklyn Institute had been forced to decline some donations of artwork, as the works could not be displayed, while other works of art had to be placed in storage. By 1920, the New York City Subway 's Institute Park station had opened outside the Brooklyn Museum, greatly improving access to the once-isolated museum from Manhattan and

8750-412: The last remaining storage rooms in the eastern wing into galleries in October 1911. The next month, a temporary access road was built from Flatbush Avenue to the rear of the building. Wills & Martin, one of the firms that had been hired to erect the new wings, declared bankruptcy in November 1913. Work stopped completely in November 1914, and the incomplete structures started to deteriorate. Because of

8875-463: The late Sir Robert Walpole , who had amassed one of the greatest such collections in Europe , and house it in a specially built wing of the British Museum for public viewing. After much debate, the idea was eventually abandoned due to the great expense, and twenty years later, the collection was bought by Tsaritsa Catherine the Great of Russia and housed in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg . The Bavarian royal collection (now in

9000-471: The mid-2010s, the museum was facing financial difficulties, and half of the 465,000 annual patrons did not pay admission because of the museum's suggested admission policy. The Brooklyn Museum's Chinese-art gallery reopened in 2019. The museum was temporarily closed from March to October 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City . During the George Floyd protests in New York City in June 2020,

9125-562: The monarch, and the first purpose-built national art galleries were the Dulwich Picture Gallery , founded in 1814 and the National Gallery, London opened to the public a decade later in 1824. Similarly, the National Gallery in Prague was not formed by opening an existing royal or princely art collection to the public, but was created from scratch as a joint project of some Czech aristocrats in 1796. The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

9250-513: The municipal drive for literacy and public education. Over the middle and late twentieth century, earlier architectural styles employed for art museums (such as the Beaux-Arts style of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City or the Gothic and Renaissance Revival architecture of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum) succumbed to modern styles , such as Deconstructivism . Examples of this trend include

9375-514: The museum began providing a larger variety of programs and adding interactive exhibits and programming. The Brooklyn Museum announced in 1964 that it would build a special-exhibit gallery on the first floor and an open study/storage gallery on the fifth floor. The Hall of the Americas opened on the museum's first floor the following May. A sculpture garden, consisting of architectural details salvaged from demolished buildings across New York City, opened at

9500-416: The museum building to a movie set. The primary elevation of the facade, facing north along Eastern Parkway, is 510 feet (160 m) wide and consists of the west and east wings, which flank a projecting pavilion with a portico . Additional pavilions project from the facade at either end. The center portico contains six Ionic columns that support a pediment with sculptures in its tympanum . The portico

9625-565: The museum building. The Henry Luce Foundation gave the museum a $ 10 million grant in 2001, which funded the construction of the Luce Center for American Art on the fifth floor. The museum's renovation was completed in April 2004. At the same time, the museum announced that it would revert to its previous name, Brooklyn Museum. By then, the Brooklyn Museum was focusing on attracting Brooklyn residents, rather than visitors from other boroughs. The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art opened on

9750-553: The museum had natural-history exhibits, which had not been the case since 1934. Brooklyn Museum officials hired architect James Polshek in 2000 to design a new glass-clad entrance for the building at a cost of $ 55 million. Polshek described the front entrance as a "wasteland" at the time, and he said he wanted to build "Brooklyn's new front stoop". The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission approved Polshek's design, despite opposition from preservationists. The renovation cost $ 63 million and also added air conditioning throughout

9875-689: The museum in April 1966. The Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art began coordinating joint programs and exhibitions in 1967. By the late 1960s, the museum was again facing a funding shortage; several galleries had been temporarily closed due to a lack of money, and its director Thomas Buechner was considering closing the museum two days a week. Brooklyn Museum officials also wanted to hire additional security guards to deter crime. The Brooklyn Museum's Community Gallery, exhibiting black New Yorkers' art, opened in October 1968 following advocacy from Federated Institutes of Cultural Enrichment (FICE),

10000-544: The museum participated in the Open Your Lobby initiative, being one of two major art institutions in New York City (along with MoMA PS1 ) to provide protesters with shelter or resources. The Brooklyn Museum received $ 50 million from the New York City government in 2021, the largest such gift in the museum's history. The money was to be used to renovate 40,000 square feet (3,700 m) into gallery space. The museum's South Asian and Islamic galleries reopened in 2022, completing

10125-500: The museum raised funds for an endowment to pay for collections care by selling or deaccessioning works of art. The October 2020 sale consisted of 12 works by artists including Lucas Cranach the Elder , Gustave Courbet , and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot , while other sales throughout that month included Modernist artists. Though usually prohibited by the Association of Art Museum Directors ,

10250-410: The museum was forced to close some galleries part-time. Another Egyptian gallery opened in April 1959, and a "pattern library" for teaching opened that July. A continued shortage of security guards forced the Brooklyn Museum to close two days a week at the beginning of 1961; the museum went back to seven-day operations in June 1961 after the city provided money for additional guards. To attract visitors,

10375-410: The museum was hosted on December 14 of the same year. Two of the museum's three stories had been completed by April 1896. The Brooklyn Institute museum's building was completed in March 1897 after a sidewalk was built between the museum's entrance and Eastern Parkway. The museum's first exhibit was a collection of almost 600 paintings, which had opened to the public on June 1, 1897, several months before

10500-562: The museum was one of the first U.S. institutions to exhibit African cast-metal and other objects as art, rather than as ethnological artifacts. The museum's acquisitions during this time also included such varied objects as the interior of a Swiss house, a stained glass window, and a pipe organ. The museum's first period room opened in 1929; these period rooms represented middle-class and non-elite citizens' homes, in contrast to other museums. which tended to focus on upper-class period rooms. The 17th-century Jans Martense Schenck house became part of

10625-402: The museum's Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art . In 2004, the Brooklyn Museum featured Manifest Destiny , an 8-by-24-foot (2.4 m × 7.3 m) oil-on-wood mural by Alexis Rockman that was commissioned by the museum as a centerpiece for the second-floor Mezzanine Gallery and marked the opening of the museum's renovated Grand Lobby and plaza. Other exhibitions have showcased

10750-528: The museum's collection—second-largest in North America are fake. The artworks were exhibited starting in 2009. In early to mid-2018, the museum hosted what was the final stop of the touring exhibit David Bowie Is , which had begun in 2013 in London and visited nearly a dozen countries before reaching the Brooklyn Museum. Costumes from The Crown and The Queen's Gambit television series were put on display as part of its virtual exhibition "The Queen and

10875-462: The museum's fourth floor in March 2007. The museum extensively renovated its Great Hall, which reopened in early 2011, and it relocated and reopened its African art gallery on the first floor the same year. A 4,150-square-foot (386 m) museum shop opened at the Brooklyn Museum in early 2012, followed later that year by a new cafe. The upscale restaurant Saul opened within the Brooklyn Museum in October 2013, changing its name to The Norm in 2016. By

11000-430: The museum's permanent collections, and the light courts would have exhibited large objects. The second floor would have housed more collections and lecture rooms, while the third floor would have had the library, music room, and galleries for images, domestic art, and science. An additional story, above the central part of the building, would have housed more departments of the museum. The main lobby, originally occupied by

11125-450: The museum's sixth floor the same year. The department store chain Abraham & Straus donated $ 50,000 in 1948 for the establishment of a "laboratory of industrial design" at the Brooklyn Museum. By the following year, Brooklyn Institute officials sought to expand the museum as part of a "vast cultural program". The plans involved an annex with a 2,500-seat auditorium behind the west wing, which

11250-567: The museum's website, it receives funding from the city government , Brooklyn borough president 's office, mayor's office, New York City Council , state government , federal government , and other agencies. In 2005, the museum was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $ 20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation , in turn funded by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg . Major benefactors have historically included Frank Lusk Babbott . The museum

11375-603: The museum, which struggled to compete with more famous institutions in Manhattan. In 1984, the museum completed the renovations of its last period rooms and opened a gallery for "early-19th-century decorative arts". The unprofitable Brooklyn Museum Art School was closed the same year, and the museum obtained $ 14 million in city funding to upgrade the climate-control systems. The museum resumed Monday operations in late 1984 after receiving additional city funding, and it started running TV advertisements in 1985. The Brooklyn Museum announced

11500-400: The museum. In the resulting lawsuit, a U.S. district court judge ruled that the New York City government could not withhold city funds from the Brooklyn Museum on First Amendment grounds. In 2002, the museum received the work The Dinner Party , by feminist artist Judy Chicago , as a gift from The Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation. Its permanent exhibition began in 2007, as a centerpiece for

11625-483: The next year. In May 2015, Creative Time president and artistic director Anne Pasternak was named the museum's next director; she assumed the position on September 1, 2015. Since 2014, the director's position has formally been known as the Shelby White and Leon Levy Director of the Brooklyn Museum , after Leon Levy Foundation cofounder Shelby White donated $ 5 million to the directorship's endowment. According to

11750-441: The opening of the eastern wing, the museum building had reached one-eighth of its total planned size. Although the museum's collections continued to grow, the New York City government was only willing to give the museum as little funding as necessary for essential maintenance. Several of the institute's donors proposed in 1905 to give $ 25,000 for the upkeep of an "astronomical observatory" at the Brooklyn Museum. City officials endorsed

11875-406: The other boroughs. In April 1922, governor Nathan L. Miller signed legislation authorizing the New York City government to issue bonds to fund wings F and G of the Brooklyn Museum. The New York City Board of Estimate refused to approve the Brooklyn Institute trustees' request for $ 875,000, and mayor John Francis Hylan also blocked the funding. Hylan changed his mind after visiting the museum, and

12000-582: The paintings of the Orleans Collection , which were housed in a wing of the Palais-Royal in Paris and could be visited for most of the 18th century. In Italy, the art tourism of the Grand Tour became a major industry from the 18th century onwards, and cities made efforts to make their key works accessible. The Capitoline Museums began in 1471 with a donation of classical sculpture to the city of Rome by

12125-525: The pavilion, but they had not done so by the end of 1899. Work on the central wing started in June 1900. The museum's central section was nearly completed by January 1903, but work proceeded slowly due to labor disputes. New York City mayor Seth Low signed a bill in August 1902, approving $ 150,000 for the construction of the Brooklyn Institute's eastern wing and pavilion. The eastern wing cost $ 344,000 to construct, and it officially opened on December 14, 1907. With

12250-668: The pavilions. An additional ten figures, five each on the western and eastern elevations of the outermost pavilions, were sculpted. The sculptures were carved by the Piccirilli Brothers , who sculpted a total of 30 figures on the museum's facade. Fourteen sculptors were hired to design the sculptures, which each measure 12 feet (3.7 m) high. Had the full building been completed, there would have been 80 sculptures in total, with 20 each depicting classical subjects, medieval and Renaissance subjects, modern European and American subjects, and Asian subjects. The 30 extant sculptures consist of

12375-416: The pilasters are topped by shorter pilasters rather than sculptures. The southern elevation faces a parking lot and contains a masonry facade and some windows. There is also an annex to the south, designed by Brown, Lawford & Forbes, which contains a secondary entrance and a stairway. The oldest portion of the building measured 193 by 71 feet (59 by 22 m) and comprised only about three percent of what

12500-547: The project diminished. Only the wings on the northern end, as well as the northeastern light court (known as the Auditorium Court), were built; the resulting L-shaped building covers a site of about 4.5 acres (1.8 ha). Although additional wings were built behind the original east wing over the years (creating the current light court), nothing was built behind the west wing. This led the New York Daily News to liken

12625-497: The public for the first time. By early 1938, museum officials sought more than $ 300,000 for repairs to the museum building, and then-director Philip Newell Youtz said that parts of the building were crumbling. The Brooklyn Museum Art School , formerly a part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music , was moved to the Brooklyn Museum in 1941. An art distribution center sponsored by the Works Progress Administration opened on

12750-467: The roadway has a lower elevation than the surrounding terrain. Fill sections are elevated sections of a roadway or trackbed. Cut and fill takes material from cut excavations and uses this to make fill sections. It costs resources to excavate material, relocate it, and to compact and otherwise prepare the filled sections. The technique aims to minimise the effort of relocating excavated material while also taking into account other constraints such as maintaining

12875-455: The second stage of the renovation. The rear annex contained a new stairway, which led to new galleries on the fourth through sixth stories of the center section. By the late 1950s, the museum was running low on funds, with director Edgar C. Schenck blaming the museum's fiscal woes on Manhattan residents' unwillingness to cross the East River to visit Brooklyn. Due to a shortage of security guards,

13000-482: The time, there had not been an auditorium at the museum for over half a century. About 33,000 square feet (3,100 m) in the museum's west wing reopened as gallery space in November 1993. The renovation retained the original layout of the west-wing spaces. The New York Times described Isozaki and Polshek's renovation as aiming for "clean, serene spaces"; the rooms had rooms with maple floors, white walls, horizontal lighting strips, and granite baseboards . The west wing

13125-399: The traditional art museum, including industrial tools and handicrafts that encourage imagination in areas traditionally considered mundane. This view of the art museum envisions it as one well-suited to an industrial world, indeed enhancing it. Dana viewed paintings and sculptures as much less useful than industrial products, comparing the museum to a department store. In addition, he encouraged

13250-614: The well-known "Bird Lady" terra cotta figure, to papyrus documents (among others the Brooklyn Papyrus ). The museum has nine mummified Egyptians. The Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern collections are housed in a series of galleries in the museum. Egyptian artifacts can be found in the long-term exhibit, Egypt Reborn: Art for Eternity , as well as in the Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Galleries. Near Eastern artifacts are located in

13375-401: The west and south. The original design for the Brooklyn Museum proposed a structure four times as large as what was built from 1893 through 1927, when construction ended. As designed, the three-story museum building was supposed to have several wings, centered around a memorial hall and clustered around four light courts . After Brooklyn became part of greater New York City in 1898, support for

13500-592: The works of various contemporary artists including Patrick Kelly , Chuck Close , Denis Peterson , Ron Mueck , Takashi Murakami , Mat Benote , Kiki Smith , Jim Dine , Robert Rauschenberg , Ching Ho Cheng , Sylvia Sleigh William Wegman , Jimmy de Sana , Oscar yi Hou , Baseera Khan , Loraine O'Grady , John Edmonds , Cecilia Vicuña , and a 2004 survey show of work by Brooklyn artists, Open House: Working in Brooklyn . In 2008, curator Edna Russman announced that she believes 10 out of 30 works of Coptic art held in

13625-606: Was a continuation of trends already well established. The building now occupied by the Prado in Madrid was built before the French Revolution for the public display of parts of the royal art collection, and similar royal galleries were opened to the public in Vienna , Munich and other capitals. In Great Britain, however, the corresponding Royal Collection remained in the private hands of

13750-541: Was appointed as acting director in early 1974, serving for a few months. He was succeeded by Michael Botwinick, who was appointed in 1974 and stepped down in 1982. Robert T. Buck became director in 1983 and served until he resigned in 1996, upon which Linda S. Ferber became acting director. From 1992 to 1995, Stephanie Stebich was Buck's assistant director. Arnold L. Lehman was named as the museum's director in April 1997, and Lehman announced in September 2014 that he would retire

13875-435: Was appointed director shortly afterward, served until his death in 1959. Thomas S. Buechner became the museum's director in 1960, making him one of the youngest directors in the country. During Buechner's tenure, Donelson Hoopes was hired as Curator of Paintings and Sculptures from 1965 to 1969. Duncan F. Cameron assumed the directorship in 1971, following Buechner's resignation; Cameron himself resigned in 1973. Michael Kan

14000-493: Was considering several measures to reduce the museum's budgetary shortfalls, including halving the number of art classes, closing the museum during the workweek, and hosting fewer exhibits per year. At the time, the museum received 31 percent of its funds from the city, a higher percentage than other New York City museums; the city still owned the building itself. After Robert Buck became director in 1983, he began hosting additional art classes, attracting members, and raising money for

14125-442: Was destroyed in a fire in 1891. In February 1889, several prominent Brooklyn citizens announced that they would begin fundraising for a new museum for the Brooklyn Institute. The museum's proponents quickly identified a site just east of Prospect Park , on the south side of Eastern Parkway . The next year, under director Franklin Hooper , Institute leaders reorganized as the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and began planning

14250-413: Was developed by Irish railway engineer Lachlan J. Boland, who saw the benefits of introducing railway practices to residential construction. A number of software products are available for calculating cut and fill. A simple approach involves defining different earthworks features in a computer program and then adjusting elevations manually to calculate the optimal cut and fill. More sophisticated software

14375-554: Was for example dismissed as director of the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) in Berlin in 1933 by the new Nazi authorities for not being politically suitable. The question of the place of the art museum in its community has long been under debate. Some see art museums as fundamentally elitist institutions, while others see them as institutions with the potential for societal education and uplift. John Cotton Dana , an American librarian and museum director, as well as

14500-532: Was founded in 1823 as the Brooklyn Apprentices' Library and merged with the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in 1843. The museum was conceived as an institution focused on a broad public. The Brooklyn Museum's current building dates to 1897 and has been expanded several times since then. The museum initially struggled to maintain its building and collection, but it was revitalized in the late 20th century following major renovations. Significant areas of

14625-533: Was not complete. Nineteen American period rooms opened at the museum at the end of 1929. In May 1934, NYC Parks approved plans for the removal of the main entrance steps, which were replaced by ground-level doors. The project also included the construction of two galleries next to the lobby, as well as new landscaping and parking lots. This work was carried out by Public Works Administration laborers. A gallery dedicated to living artists' work opened in February 1935, and

14750-487: Was originally accessed by a staircase that was removed in 1936–1937. Daniel Chester French was responsible for the pediment sculptures. French also designed the two allegorical figures Brooklyn and Manhattan flanking the museum's entrance; they were created in 1916 for the Brooklyn approach to the Manhattan Bridge and relocated to the museum in 1963. Above the pediment is a copper cresting with anthemia , as well as

14875-428: Was originally planned. The center of the first floor would have contained a memorial hall, while a "great hall of sculpture" would have extended to the north and south of the memorial hall. To the west of the memorial hall would have been gallery space for artwork on loan, while to the east would have been a multi-story auditorium. The remaining corners of the first floor would have included several additional galleries for

15000-429: Was planned to cost $ 500,000, as well as a general renovation of existing facilities, which was to cost $ 1.5 million. A new 400-seat lecture hall opened at the museum that September, within space formerly occupied by two Egyptian galleries. To attract visitors, the museum expanded its educational programs greatly in the late 1940s. Brooklyn Institute officials announced plans in 1951 to repair the Brooklyn Museum as part of

15125-423: Was renamed for investor Morris A. Schapiro and his brother, art historian Meyer Schapiro , in early 1994 after Morris Schapiro donated $ 5 million. The Brooklyn Museum changed its name to Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1997. According to acting director Linda S. Ferber, the renaming was necessary because "there was more confusion about the museum's identity than we supposed"; for instance, many visitors still believed

15250-433: Was succeeded by William Henry Fox, who served from 1914 to his retirement in 1934. Fox was followed by Philip Newell Youtz from 1934 to 1938. Laurance Page Roberts was director from 1938 to 1942, when his wife Isabel Spaulding Roberts became interim director on his behalf; L. P. Roberts formally resigned in 1946. His immediate successor, Charles Nagel Jr., served for nine years until he resigned in 1955. Edgar Craig Schenck, who

15375-556: Was the Green Vault of the Kingdom of Saxony in the 1720s. Privately funded museums open to the public began to be established from the 17th century onwards, often based around a collection of the cabinet of curiosities type. The first such museum was the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford , opened in 1683 to house and display the artefacts of Elias Ashmole that were given to Oxford University in

15500-457: Was to be built. Engineers began surveying the site that May and found that the bedrock under the site was several hundred feet deep, making it impossible to build the foundations on solid rock. Nonetheless, the engineers had determined that the gravel fill under the site was strong enough to support a building. Construction on the Brooklyn Museum of Arts and Sciences' west wing officially began on September 14, 1895. A groundbreaking ceremony for

15625-433: Was to measure 140 by 122 feet (43 by 37 m). The central pavilion was to include a 1,250-seat lecture hall in the basement (actually at ground level), as well as a hall of sculpture on the first floor, which would serve as the museum's main lobby. The second story was to contain natural-history exhibits, while the third story was to include paintings. The New York State Legislature needed to authorize $ 300,000 in bonds for

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