The Brooklyn Museum plans to build an expansion to house its African art collection

A project estimated at more than thirteen million dollars. On Wednesday March 25, the Brooklyn Museum, the second largest art museum in New York, revealed to the American press its plan to renovate and build a space dedicated to its collection of African art. Dating from the beginning of the 20th century^e century, it is one of the oldest collections of this kind in the United States, indicate our colleagues from Artnews .

In a press release, the director of the establishment, Anne Pasternak, presented this renovation as “a major step in the revitalization of the entire museum” with “a bold redefinition of how African art is perceived and celebrated in American cultural institutions”.

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The Brooklyn Museum expects the new gallery to open in fall 2027 and promises future exhibitions with works ranging from Antiquity to the present day. According to plans presented this week to the press, the African art collection should occupy a space of more than 600 square meters on the third floor of the museum. Among the thirteen million dollars allocated to this project, the New York institution can count on federal grants and financial support from the Ford Foundation, the Sills Family Foundation and private donors.

If the project follows its schedule, work will begin this summer. They will follow plans by architecture firm Peterson Rich Office, which plans to connect the new space to Egyptian art galleries, in order to“unify North Africa with the rest of the continent”. It will therefore be adjacent to the so-called Beaux-Arts courtyard, designed in 1897 by the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White.

Rich collection of 4,500 works

The Brooklyn Museum promises a major inauguration next year, with an exhibition that will draw on the collection African artwith more than 4,500 works. The mission was entrusted to Ernestine White-Mifetu and Annissa Malvoisin, respectively curator and assistant curator of African art at the New York institution. Among these numerous works are “historical and contemporary pieces” of the African diaspora in the United States. At New York TimesErnestine White-Mifetu declared that this diaspora was “an integral part of African history and there is no denying its importance to millions of people”.

This renovation project will be particularly scrutinized by the press after the wave of layoffs of around forty museum employees caused by a budget deficit of around ten million dollars last year. However, the institution hopes to relaunch itself and capitalize on the recent exhibition dedicated to the genius of Claude Monet which had a huge success last fall.