GRAND OPENING OF REINSTALLED GALLERY FOLLOWS MULTI-YEAR RENOVATION AND EXPANSION UNITING THREE HISTORIC BUILDINGS
Project enables Gallery to show more than 4,000 works, including some 1,100 new acquisitions; present a greater diversity of special exhibitions; and expand its education programming for the Yale community and the public at large.
On December 12, 2012, the Yale University Art Gallery celebrates the grand opening of the renovated and expanded museum. This important initiative, which has been accompanied by parallel growth in the museum’s holdings, has enabled the Gallery not only to enhanceits role as one of the nation’s preeminent teaching institutions, but also to join the ranks of the country’s leading public art museums.
Experience the Gallery’s celebrated collection as never before!
The completed renovation increases the space occupied by the Gallery from one-and-a-half buildings—the 1953 modernist structure designed by Louis Kahn and approximately half of the adjacent 1928 Old Yale Art Gallery, designed by Egerton Swartwout—to three. The project began with the critically acclaimed restoration of the Kahn building and continues today with the renovation and expansion of the Old Yale Art Gallery and the contiguous 1866 Street Hall, designed by Peter Bonnett Wight and home to the Gallery from 1866 to 1928. It unites the three buildings into a cohesive whole while maintaining the distinctive architectural identity of each.
Gallery Guide Program
The student Gallery Guide program at the Yale University Art Gallery is an opportunity for Yale undergraduates to lead thematic tours of the museum for the Yale community and the New Haven public. Students participate in a yearlong training program with museum staff, curators, and faculty members. The training sessions include explorations of the Gallery’s collection, discussions on the methodology of museum tours, and behind-the-scenes visits to the Gallery’s conservation studio, special exhibitions, and art openings, as well as field trips to other museums and art centers such as DIA Beacon, MASS MoCA, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The in-depth training requires a time commitment similar to that of an academic course. Following the completion of the
training program, students remain involved with the Gallery Guide program by giving museum tours and participating in meetings throughout the semester. This is an excellent opportunity for undergraduates to integrate art into their experience at Yale and to become part of the Yale University Art Gallery community.
We decided to take a student guide tour and it turned out to be quite interesting! The young man we met showed us three different paintings and asked us first to describe what we saw. Then he gave us his view on what he saw. And lastly different ways of seeing and interpretation of the paintings. Using first our eyes, historical facts, and our intuitiveness as to what we believed was being portrayed. We found him to be a gracious host and open to our questions. If you have the time we encourage you to take advantage of this program.
