The "new" Crocker Art Museum, with its 125,000-square-foot expansion, will open to the public on Oct. 10, 2010, museum officials announced Friday.
"We love the idea of 10-10-10," said director Lial Jones. "We'll do the ribbon-cutting at 10 a.m. and be open until 10 p.m. We want to make this a great community celebration."
Exterior work on the $100 million wing, which broke ground in July 2007 just west of the existing museum at 216 O St., should be completed by Thanksgiving. Then begins the months-long task of finishing the interior and moving in. The museum will close in late June or early July and reopen in October.
The new wing will be named Teel Family Pavilion, said Jones, to acknowledge a $13 million gift from the Joyce and Jim Teel Family Foundation. In all, $90 million has been raised in the museum's ongoing capital campaign.
"We still have fundraising to do," said Jones, adding that she is confident the needed money will be raised.
The curatorial staff announced the inaugural exhibitions for the "new" Crocker, three of rarely seen artwork from the permanent collection and one highlighting new directions for the museum.
The new wing, designed by the New York firm Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, will triple the size of the existing museum. It will contain a cafe, a larger museum store, a 260-seat auditorium, an art-conservation laboratory, classrooms and indoor-outdoor event spaces.
"We're hoping that … people will come and spend time, gather to talk and eat, and then experience something that is different," said board member and longtime docent Nancy Lawrence.
The Crocker Art Museum was founded in 1873 as the private gallery of Margaret and Edwin Bryant Crocker. She gave the gallery and art collection to the city of Sacramento and California Museum Association, in trust for the public. May 6, 2010, will mark the 125th anniversary of that gift.
Call The Bee's Dixie Reid, (916) 321-1134.
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