The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art June 1970 [antikvár]

Annual Report for 1969 One is amazed that Noah, while building the Ark, found time to persuade the animals to be organized in twos. The dislocations accompanying any form of construction are only too well known to those who have built anything. Such distractions are unknown to those in the fortunate position of just occupying space as, for example, a minor North Italian palazzo. Still these complaints are hollow, for we are confident that the new dispensations made possible by the building program will produce a far better, more serviceable, more organic art museum—one closer to the unattainable ideals of perfect delight, comprehensive conservation, stunning display, profound scholarship, and rewarding education. The perfect physical plant doesn't do all these things, of course, but it does make them more nearly possible to attain. With a building as complex as the new Educational Wing, target dates for completion can be but tentative in the early stages. Only as work progresses can a completion date become relatively firm. At this point the new structure is about 75% complete. To some observers it may appear that a considerable part of the work is still to be done. However, what remains is not basic structural work but finishing. At this point we are hoping to conclude work and open the new building sometime in the late fall or early winter of 1970. Let it first be said that our modest fund-raising attempts have been only moderately successful. By the end of 1969, $483,442.50 had been raised by gift and pledge, not nearly enough to begin replacing the capital funds removed from our operating endowment for expenditure on the costs of the new Educational Wing and on those of the remodelling of the east interior of the 1916 building. We earnestly hope that more funds will be forthcoming from the friends of the Museum, thus enabling our operations to continue and increase, particularly those in the realm of public service, education, and special exhibitions. Secondly, we should at this point reiterate and clarify what this new construction is all about. All new buildings are described in terms of square-footage space. But the 110,000 square feet we are adding is so located and organized in relation to the two previous structures of 1916 and 1958 that the result is not three separate units or spaces but really two—a public service area (the new wing) and a permanent collection, storage, and conservation area (the two older buildings). The new addition, with its 750-seat auditorium, two 170-seat lecture and recital rooms, ten classrooms, three audiovisual rooms, new space for the Extension Exhibitions Department, Educational, and Music Department offices, and 14,000 square feet of special exhibition galleries, is oriented outwards to the public sector. The two older buildings 163