The Barnes Foundation Announces New Building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway to be Complete by 2011
Local Community, State and City Officials Welcome the Barnes to the Parkway and Unveil 400 foot Banner
October 16, 2008, Lower Merion, PA - The Barnes Foundation marked another milestone
today with a ceremony to commence construction of its future home on the Benjamin Franklin
Parkway. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation Dr. Bernard C. Watson
announced that construction for the new Barnes Foundation campus will be completed by
2011. Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter
were joined by Philadelphia Councilman Darrell C. Clarke, business and arts and culture
leaders including Director of the City of Philadelphia Office of Arts and Culture and the
Creative Economy, Gary P. Steuer, and friends and citizens from the community and around
the region, to help Dr. Watson unveil a stunning array of 10-foot high banners totaling
400 feet in length introducing some of the treasures in the Barnes Collection.
The new Barnes Foundation building on the Parkway will house the Foundation's world-renowned
art collection in galleries that replicate the scale, proportion and configuration of the
original Merion galleries. In addition, the new Barnes campus will provide a substantial
increase in dedicated space for teaching the Foundation's art education programs.
The state-of-the-art facility will also include space for a special exhibitions gallery,
art conservation, classrooms, an auditorium, as well as a retail gift shop and café.
Landscaped grounds on the four-and-a-half acre site will reference horticultural aspects
of the Merion Arboretum. When completed, this beautiful, functional, and accessible complex
will substantially reinforce Dr. Barnes's ideals and goals and the Foundation's educational
mission. In addition, the Barnes Foundation will greatly contribute to the Parkway
experience—placing the extraordinary collection within reach of more citizens and visitors
from around the world on Philadelphia's principal corridor of outstanding visual arts
institutions.
The project timeline is as follows:
Ongoing: Remediation and site preparation
Winter 2008-2009: Demolition of existing building
Spring/Summer 2009: Architects design refinement
Autumn 2009: New building construction
Winter 2011: New building construction complete/Interior work and installation
"Our timeline is an indication of the progress that has been made so far.", said Dr. Bernard
C. Watson, Chairman of the Barnes Foundation Board of Trustees. "In addition to achieving
some significant milestones in securing the project team and working on the project design
and in fundraising, we are also meeting goals in our collections work, conservation,
governance, and staffing. The project to build the new Barnes Foundation campus is well
underway and is in good hands. It is gratifying and overwhelming to see such positive
support from our region's leading public and private organizations, who have joined together
with us to make this incomparable art education available to the most diverse and broad
array of citizens and visitors. This evening symbolizes the benefits of our presence in
Philadelphia, and to have our partners in step with us makes me proud. This is truly a
momentous and joyous occasion in the Foundation's history."
Joining in the celebrations was Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, who said,
"The move of the Barnes Foundation collection to Philadelphia is tremendously significant
for the City, and is an important moment for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The
breathtaking collection that will make its home on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway will be an
arts education experience unlike any other. We should all be celebrating this important
occasion."
Vice Chairman of the Barnes Foundation Board of Trustees, Joe Neubauer, added,
"The banners we unveil tonight offer a hint of the magnificent art experience to come as
the Barnes Foundation opens its doors on the Parkway. I want to thank all of the individuals,
foundations and other organizations that have supported the Barnes as it prepares for this
historic expansion. Without your vision and unwavering support we would not be here tonight.
I know you believe, as I do, in the educational mission of the Foundation, and I am
counting on your continued help to bring all the Barnes Foundation has to offer to a
larger and more diverse audience, serving Philadelphia, the region and the world with its
unique art and educational programming."
Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter noted the importance of the occasion by saying,
"This is a momentous opportunity for our City, and one of the most important additions
to our region's cultural community to ever take place. The City of Philadelphia welcomes
the Barnes Foundation and will embrace it as a partner in our cultural and education
realms - and certainly as a symbol of our region's growing prominence."
A talented and renowned team has been selected to lead the design and construction of the
Barnes Foundation Art Education Campus in Philadelphia. Tod Williams & Billie Tsien
Architects of New York head the project as lead Architect, supported by the
Philadelphia-based firm, Ballinger, as Associate Architect. Olin Partnership has been
engaged as Landscape Architect and Fisher Marantz Stone as lighting designers. Aegis
Property Group will serve as external project managers with L. F. Driscoll as construction
Managers. Supervising and coordinating the project for the Barnes Foundation, is Bill
McDowell, who serves as the Barnes Foundation Project Executive.
Aileen Roberts, Barnes Foundation Board of Trustees member and Chair of the Building Committee
said, "We are extremely excited by the preliminary discussion and design ideas from our architectural
team and believe our new building will be a wonderful addition to the Parkway. It will enable
the Barnes Foundation to expand our educational programs and draw many new visitors from the
Philadelphia community and the world."
"Bringing the Barnes Foundation's teaching collection to a new home on the Parkway will fulfill
Dr. Barnes's educational mission in crucial ways appropriate to the 21st Century." said Derek
Gillman, Executive Director and President of the Barnes Foundation. "We shall have the opportunity
on the Parkway to enrich our art education programming and outreach, and to make the galleries more
accessible, thanks to location, new technology and significantly expanded educational facilities.
This new campus in Philadelphia will allow the Barnes to educate and expose many more people to our
diverse collections, which range from great modern European and American paintings, to African,
Native American and Asian art, Pennsylvania Dutch art, and antiquities. The banners you see here
this evening portray ensembles and individual images from the Barnes Collection. During construction
of the new building, they will serve as a reminder of what makes the Barnes Foundation unique and the
marvelous educational opportunities that await people upon the completion of this project."
Quotes from the Banners on the Parkway
"It is that plain, ordinary person, with little schooling, whom we want to teach to use
the qualities of mind, heart, and soul, with which he has been endowed by nature, in such a way
that he will be able to understand what the thinkers have done and what the artists have done. That is
the main idea of the Foundation." - Letter, Albert C. Barnes to Leopold Stokowski, March 18, 1925.
Presidents' Files, Albert C. Barnes Correspondence. The Barnes Foundation Archives, Merion, PA.
I feel confident we can open our eyes and look into the years ahead, to see radiating from this
institution, from the work of this Foundation, influences which are going to effect education in
the largest sense of that word: development of the thoughts and emotions of boys and girls, youths,
men and women all over this country, and to an extent and range and depth which makes this, to my
mind, one of the most important educational acts, one of the most profound educational deeds of the
age in which we are living. - John Dewey, "Dedication Address," Journal of The Barnes Foundation, 1 no. 2 (May 1925): 6.
About the Barnes Foundation
The Barnes Foundation was established by Albert C. Barnes in 1922 to "promote the advancement of
education and the appreciation of the fine arts." Currently located in a 12-acre arboretum, the
Paul Cret-designed Gallery houses one of the world's largest collections of Impressionist,
Post-Impressionist and early Modern paintings, with extensive holdings by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse,
Picasso, Rousseau, Modigliani, Soutine and de Chirico, as well as Old Master paintings, important
examples of African sculpture and Native American ceramics, American furniture and metalwork, and
antiquities from the Mediterranean region and Asia.
For more information on the Barnes Foundation please visit www.barnesfoundation.org
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For more information, contact:
The Barnes Foundation
Andrew Stewart, (610) 667-0290 x1567 or (610) 608-6895
astewart@barnesfoundation.org
Ceisler Jubelirer
Larry Ceisler, (215)735-6760
larry@cj-llc.com
EDITOR'S NOTE: Event photos are available upon request.
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300 North Latch's Lane
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