The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) is nearing completion of a $75 million capital campaign to fund construction of its new facility and a long-term operating endowment.
To date, the GRAM has raised over $70 million. The Wege Foundation made the lead gift of $20 million in 2001.
The new $55 million museum, currently under construction at 101
Monroe Center, will be a 125,000 square foot structure made of concrete and glass.
A three-story gallery wing with glass skylights will house the GRAM’s permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. The gallery also will include a print study room, art reference library, conference room, multi-use auditorium, and members’ lounge, café, and museum shop. At 18,000 square feet, the new gallery is 300 percent larger than the GRAM’s current display space.
The south wing will include an education center, children’s art studios, an eating area, as well as space for visitor orientation, teaching resources, and museum educators. Other public amenities include ice skate rental and equipment storage for the ice rink located in the immediately adjacent Rosa Parks Circle.
“GRAM’s new building will appear monumental in its scale, yet feel intimate in its spaces,” said architect Kulapat Yantrasast, a founding partner of Workshop Hakomori Yantrasast, the LA-based design firm managing the project.
The new museum is scheduled to open in late spring 2007.
Source: Kristen Krueger Corrado, PR & Marketing Manager, Grand Rapids Art Museum www.gramonline.org