WPSU Shorts
My Museum: An Inside Look at the New Palmer Museum of Art
Special | 4m 34sVideo has Closed Captions
Take an inside look at the new Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State.
The new 73,000-square-foot home of the Palmer Museum of Art opened June 1 and features an installation by Dale Chihuly, views of the arboretum and twice the space of its prior location to show its growing collection. Director Erin Coe describes the visitor-focused design, the opening show focused on Pennsylvania artists, and how she hopes the space will leave saying "this is my museum."
WPSU Shorts
My Museum: An Inside Look at the New Palmer Museum of Art
Special | 4m 34sVideo has Closed Captions
The new 73,000-square-foot home of the Palmer Museum of Art opened June 1 and features an installation by Dale Chihuly, views of the arboretum and twice the space of its prior location to show its growing collection. Director Erin Coe describes the visitor-focused design, the opening show focused on Pennsylvania artists, and how she hopes the space will leave saying "this is my museum."
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[music playing] NARRATOR: On June 1, we opened the doors of the new Palmer Museum of Art to the public.
The new Palmer Museum of Art differs from the former building in a number of significant ways.
It is a 73,000-square-foot facility located in the arboretum.
It will feature twice as much space to present the growing permanent collection.
And we're anticipating tripling our attendance in the first year.
I'm most looking forward to how visitors experience the museum as they walk through spaces intentionally designed to support the collection and to allow glimpses and views of the arboretum and the botanic gardens beyond.
Visitors will notice different ceiling heights.
And there's a ebb and flow of the visitor experience as you meander through the galleries.
One of the features of the new museum is an installation by the international artist Dale Chihuly.
It is titled Lupine Blue Persian Wall, and it wraps the feature staircase in the new museum.
It's comprised of 22 Persian glass forms in classic Penn State blue and white.
No two are the same, and they were all created specifically for this installation.
The main approach to the galleries was designed around the enfilade.
Enfilade is a term that is used to describe adjoining spaces that you can see through.
It's intended to create that sense of wonder and excitement and also a feeling of calm.
First and foremost, the Palmer Museum of Art is the University Art Museum of Penn State.
But the museum is very much a town and gown museum.
We wanted our opening show to really embrace the museum's role at the land grant institution of Penn State.
Made in PA focuses on artists that either hail from Pennsylvania, or have established their careers in Pennsylvania, or Pennsylvania is their adopted home.
The new museum was really designed to meet the needs of a 21st-century university art museum, one that intentionally focuses on serving audiences of all ages and all backgrounds.
We have been intentionally adding underrepresented artists to our holdings.
And this includes artists of color and women artists.
This is part of a larger movement nationwide.
Museums are focused more than ever with diversifying their holdings and including underrepresented groups.
And that speaks to all, all people, all communities.
A museum of the 21st century incorporates the visitor into the museum experience.
We want visitors to feel like they belong here.
We want them to leave and say, this is my museum.
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