Packing Up the Museums

When the Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) gave way to a body entitled the Harvard Art Museum at the end of April, the move represented not simply a change of name but a new level of unity.

“The new name, selected because it better expresses the institution’s mission, grows out of an initiative to further unify and integrate the museum’s collections and programs,” the Museum declared in a press release announcing the change.

This isn’t the first time the University has strived to unify its museums, nor is it the first time they’ve encountered difficulty in doing so.

In 1985, the newly-built Arthur M. Sackler Museum opened to the public just across the street from the Fogg Art Museum.

But one aspect of architect James F. Stirling’s plan was left uncompleted: a bridge spanning Broadway designed to display art and link the Sackler and the Fogg. Some Cambridge residents argued that the bridge would not serve enough of a public good to justify its construction, and the city withheld permission to erect it.

Over two decades later, Harvard is again wrangling with residents over its plans for museum construction. This time, however, the contest has crossed the Charles.

The museum renovations are a two-pronged operation, with the proposed Allston museum and the renovations to the building on 32 Quincy St. occurring independently of each other. The Fogg will close to the public on June 30, with plans to stay shut until 2013.

“It’s more about an efficient use of space than it is about a large expansion [in Cambridge],” Harvard Art Museum spokesman Daron J. Manoogian said.

More recent additions to the complex that houses the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger Museum will be replaced with a single, more unified, and efficiently-used addition, with a new entrance to the building appearing along Prescott Street. The Fine Arts Library will also be leaving the complex, which will free up more space for offices and storage.

In addition to upgrading outdated climate control and electrical systems, the Harvard Art Museum wants to integrate study centers for students with the galleries of the building.

“One of our largest goals in this whole project is to increase access to the collections, and the study centers are a really important part of this,” Manoogian said.

Cambridge residents said they have been pleased with Harvard’s level of communication and outreach.

Mid-Cambridge Neighborhood Association President Doane Perry praised Harvard’s entreaties, which included a community open house at the Fogg in May.

“The process has been good and the plan is also being well-received,” Perry said.

But across the river, things are less rosy.

The Allston museum project was put on hold while residents reacted to the proposal for a science complex. The project has yet to be reproposed, but it is anticipated that it will be filed at the end of this calendar year, according to Harvard spokesman Joshua D. Poupore.

“It is too early to say exactly where a building will be located, or how big it will be, or what percentage will be devoted to gallery versus study space,” he said.

The original plan presented to Allston residents featured a museum harboring contemporary and modern art holdings in an area known as Barry’s Corner in North Allston, which residents had hoped to revitalize. But for some residents, the plan for Barry’s Corner did not appear to work towards this goal.

Harry Mattison, a member of the Harvard-Allston Task Force, has a vision for a vibrant community area that he said Harvard isn’t living up to.

“Harvard has signed on in the past for that to be a real dynamic urban center...a real hub of the neighborhood,” Mattison said.

He now fears that the University may renege on this plan, since the most recent proposal for development around Barry’s Corner involves a number of athletic facilities and this museum, which Mattison describes as more of a “storage warehouse, and an office building, and a place where curators would work on art.”

Mattison also complained of what he described as a “bait and switch” on the part of the University. Harvard’s original proposal, which entailed reusing existing commercial buildings for interim storage, was later changed to the proposal for a permanent museum space on Barry’s Corner, which Mattison and his fellow residents discovered upon reading The Boston Globe the day after meeting with Harvard planners.

“They now want to build a brand new building right in the middle of our neighborhood...and they don’t even have the common courtesy to tell us in person,” Mattison said.

Despite their grievances over the perceived communication breakdown, some Allston residents said they are optimistic about the proposed Harvard Art Museum space in their community. Though Allston Civic Association President Paul Berkeley acknowledged that there was a lot of quick opposition to the museum upon its first proposal, he said, “I would like to see that given more discussion, because I see some benefit to a cultural use of that area.”

On both sides of the Charles, the Harvard Art Museum is gearing up for its changes, and boasting integration as a key to improving study resources and exhibition space. Though Manoogian said that the Allston museum project and the renovations of 32 Quincy St. are not strictly tied together, they are united in their goals of expanding both the visibility and availability of their holdings.

“It’s fair to say that most museums display between three and five percent [of their holdings],” he said, “and we’ll certainly be doing much better than the current less than one percent that we’re doing right now.”

—Staff writer Joshua J. Kearney can be reached at kearney@fas.harvard.edu.