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For a second, Dennis Hevia took within the new Arlington Museum of Artwork’s hallway.
Hevia, the amenities director, walked this hallway a number of instances because the museum moved into its new location within the metropolis’s Leisure District. He and Chris Hightower, the museum’s president and CEO, transported 22 truckloads for the relocation. He has already embellished his personal workplace area, one thing the previous place didn’t supply.
However the feelings didn’t hit Hevia, the previous museum’s board vice chairman, till three days earlier than the museum’s official reopening date.
“I’ve been right here since there was nothing on the ground,” he mentioned. “I’ve seen every part come up. And I’m strolling via this area, and it occurred to me, ‘This might be the (Dallas Museum of Artwork). This might be the Kimbell. However it’s not. It’s Arlington Museum of Artwork, and I virtually cried.”
Hevia is considered one of many workers members concerned within the Arlington Museum of Artwork’s relocation to town’s Leisure District, 1200 Ballpark Manner, on March 30. Together with the standard gallery, which has greater than 12,000 sq. toes to showcase static and interactive artwork, the brand new museum area additionally has 4 immersive galleries totaling as much as practically 21,000 sq. toes of exhibit area, with partitions which might be 18 toes tall.
The museum’s earlier location had about 5,500 sq. toes of exhibition area.
“The brand new AMA footprint is sort of eight instances bigger than our earlier one, permitting us to mix conventional, immersive, interactive and evolving artwork varieties in methods that may encourage, entertain, interact and mirror our neighborhood and our world,” Hightower mentioned in a press launch.
The museum struck a deal with the city last April for a brand new location. The museum pays $2.9 million to transform the exhibit area, and town will spend $1.9 million to enhance the shared area between Esports Stadium Arlington and the museum.
In 2023, the museum noticed a 46% increase in attendance from 2021. Final summer time, the “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Collection” exhibition broke the museum’s attendance information.
“In the previous couple of years, the Arlington Museum of Artwork has honed its abilities as a museum that by no means stands nonetheless,” Hightower mentioned. “Each three to 4 months, we remodel our complete area with fully new artwork exhibitions. Now we have now a possibility to scale approach up.”
Arlington attracts greater than 15 million guests yearly. The town’s Leisure District facilities, equivalent to Globe Life Area, AT&T Stadium, Texas Stay!, Loews Arlington Lodge and Six Flags Over Texas, all contribute to the variety of guests. Subsequent yr, the Nationwide Medal of Honor Museum is scheduled to open reverse the Arlington Museum of Artwork.
“Don’t blink your eyes since you’re going to overlook the event,” Mayor Jim Ross instructed the Arlington Report.
The museum kick-started its reopening with three exhibitions: “Pompeii: The Immortal City” at the traditional gallery, “One Point Five Degrees” at the immersive galleries, and the thirty fourth annual Youth Art Month, which showcases work by Arlington ISD and Duncanville ISD students, on the Neighborhood Gallery, which can at all times present free exhibitions.
Two days earlier than the gallery’s opening, artwork items created by Arlington ISD college students lay on the ground, ready to be positioned on the wall. The museum acquired about 650 to 700 artworks from elementary faculties for Youth Artwork Month, director of training Vititia Williams mentioned.
Williams participated in Youth Artwork Month final yr as an Arlington ISD artwork instructor, and that is her first yr doing an set up for a significant present, she mentioned. Her expertise engaged on each side tells her that this yr’s Youth Artwork Month noticed extra artwork from college students.
About 80% of the items got here the day prior to this.
“No lie — My telephone from eight o’clock to 5 o’clock each hour, simply fixed. At any time when anyone exhibits up, we’d go seize it or go allow them to in,” Williams mentioned.
In June, the museum will full the Schooling Middle, a 3,300-square-foot area of 4 school rooms linked by a shared gallery. The area will probably be residence to the museum’s long-running Summer time Artwork Camp.
Probably the greatest issues concerning the new Schooling Middle is the close by restrooms, Williams mentioned. Prior to now, college students misplaced some tutorial time as a result of the restrooms had been situated on totally different flooring.
The area will probably be one of many final issues to be finalized after the museum opens. Hevia’s job after March 30 is completely behind the scenes away from guests’ sights, he mentioned.
Hevia’s telephone rang in the midst of the dialog — he was wanted for an additional activity.
Three days earlier than the opening, he hit 39,700 steps to arrange for logistics.
For the earlier 15 days, he averaged about 26,000 per day.
“So far as my concern, aside from my children and my grandkids and my new great-grandkids, the museum will probably be my legacy for the remainder of my life,” he mentioned.
Dang Le is a reporting fellow for the Fort Price Report. Contact him at [email protected] or @DangHLe. On the Fort Price Report, information selections are made independently of our board members and monetary supporters. Learn extra about our editorial independence coverage here.
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