Crocker Art Museum :: Press Releases

125,000-Square-Foot Building Designed by the Late Charles Gwathmey, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects

New Crocker is a Focal Point of Sacramento’s Emergence as a Cultural Center

November 2, 2009 – Sacramento, CA – On October 10, 2010 the Crocker Art Museum—the first art museum established in the Western United States—will unveil a new 125,000-square-foot building designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects that will more than triple the museum’s current size. The new building will complement the museum’s historic structures and expand the Crocker Art Museum’s ability to originate and present traveling exhibitions and educational programs, exhibit significantly more of its growing collection, and enhance its role as a cultural resource for California and the state’s many visitors. The project’s capital campaign has elicited unprecedented support, with more than $90 million raised to date towards a $100 million goal.

The Crocker Art Museum, which became a public institution in 1885, will mark its 125th anniversary in 2010. The museum’s holdings and programs have burgeoned as the population of Sacramento—the State Capital—has increased and diversified. Today, the museum houses contemporary paintings, sculpture, and multi-media works, a comprehensive collection of California art dating from the Gold Rush to the present day, exceptional holdings of master drawings, Dutch and Flemish paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries, 19th-century Central and Northern European paintings, one of the largest and most comprehensive international ceramics collections in the United States, and a rapidly growing collection of Asian art. The Crocker continues to build its programs and strengthen its collection in new and existing areas in anticipation of the increased capacities its new building will provide.

“The new Crocker Art Museum will be a point of pride for our city and our state,” said Marcy Friedman, Campaign Co-Chair and Board Member, Crocker Art Museum Association. “Sacramento is not only the Capital of California, it is in the midst of some of our state’s greatest destinations —from Napa Valley and the Bay Area to Lake Tahoe and Yosemite—and the Crocker Art Museum is at the heart of Sacramento. I have long believed that Sacramento and the Crocker would emerge and flourish as cultural leaders, and I am deeply proud to have been able to play a role in making that vision a reality. The tremendous support for this project shows a strong commitment to the value of the arts by both the city and the people of Sacramento.”

“The opening of our new facility next October marks a dynamic phase in the evolution of the Crocker” said Museum Director Lial Jones. “We will be able to exhibit works that have rarely–or never– been on public view and significantly expand our educational programming and public events. All of us at the Crocker are very excited to serve our community in ways that literally weren’t possible before and to be an even more integral part of civic life in Sacramento and the region.”

“This is an exhilarating time for the city of Sacramento, and the Crocker Art Museum’s expansion exemplifies the changes taking place here,” said Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. “The museum is vital to the region’s cultural and economic development, and the new Crocker is an important icon for Sacramento’s ongoing emergence as a cultural destination and a world-class city.”

Judge Edwin B. and Margaret Crocker commissioned the construction of a Victorian-Italianate building to serve as a gallery for their art collection in 1869, a year before the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Boston Museum of Fine Art, and a decade before the founding the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1885, Margaret Crocker presented both the building and collection to the city as a public art museum.

While the Crocker Art Museum undertook a series of renovations and additions in the last century, the facility could not keep pace with the museum’s growing collection. In 2000, the Crocker Art Museum began a master planning process with Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects and in 2002 commissioned the firm to design a major expansion of the museum.

Charles Gwathmey’s classic, contemporary design will enhance the visitor’s experience and the museum’s programming capacity, while paying tribute to the institution’s existing architecture. The expansion reflects and complements the historic Art Gallery building, echoing design elements including the three-story configuration, porches, window placement and balconies. Gwathmey’s design directly connects the new galleries to the Art Gallery building, allowing for seamless movement from the new to the existing structure. The plan also integrates the various buildings of the complex and creates engaging and flexible interior spaces for exhibitions and public programs. The design for the Crocker Art Museum, and most of the building construction, was completed before the death of Charles Gwathmey in August 2009. Gwathmey Siegel Associate Partner Gerald Gendreau, who has worked on the design since its inception, is overseeing the project’s completion.

Upon arriving at the museum, visitors will enter a dramatic two-story, glass-walled court adjacent to a new 7,000-square-foot open-air courtyard. The indoor and outdoor spaces of the building’s first floor will be open to the public free of charge and will provide a community gathering place. Free Wi-Fi will be available and a new 260-seat auditorium and meeting center will host films, performances, lectures, panel discussions and other public programs and community events.

The new Crocker will provide resources for people of all ages and interests. The building’s features will include expanded educational and art studio space, a teacher resource center, a space for participatory arts programming for children and adults, an expanded library and student exhibition galleries. A Works on Paper Study Center will greatly improve access for visiting scholars studying the Crocker’s outstanding master drawings collection. The expansion will provide space for onsite collections care and storage, as well as a new conservation lab. New public amenities, including a café with indoor and outdoor seating and a redesigned Museum Store, are also being added.

Inaugural Exhibitions

The new Crocker Art Museum will present a series of special exhibitions at its opening in October 2010. Three of the four inaugural exhibitions will feature highlights of the museum’s permanent collection—many of which have never been publicly displayed—as well as works of art that illustrate the diverse new directions in which the Crocker collection is developing.

In recognition of the museum’s 125th anniversary in 2010, the exhibition “Tomorrow’s Legacies: Gifts Celebrating the Next 125 Years” showcases a selection of works of art that will one day become part of the Crocker’s permanent holdings and provides a look into the future of the collection. Works in the exhibition span centuries and continents, ranging from ancient Etruscan vessels and Chinese sculpture, to African and Asmat figures and shields, to 18th century Wedgwood porcelain, to 19th-century French Barbizon paintings by Charles-Émile Jacque and Charles-François Daubigny. The exhibit also includes a wide range of 20th-century American and Californian works, beginning with paintings by Impressionsts John Twachtman and Theodore Butler and continuing to the present day with work by Viola Frey, Nathan Oliveira, Paul Wonner and Wayne Thiebaud.

Key works from the Crocker’s renowned collection of master drawings—including pieces by Albrecht Durer and Jean-Honoré Fragonard—will be on view in “A Pioneering Collection: Master Drawings from the Crocker Art Museum.” “The Vase and Beyond: The Sidney Swidler Collection of Ceramics” will feature the entirety of a recent 800-piece gift to the Crocker of an encyclopedic collection of 20th-century ceramics, which represents the work of more than 300 artists, including Paul Dresang, Andrea Gill and Don Reitz. In addition to the exhibitions drawn from the permanent collection, the Crocker will open “Paul Jenkins: The Color of Light,” which explores the opulently colorful works of this artist, cited by prominent art critic Clement Greenberg to be one of the major figures of the Abstract Expressionist and Color Field movements.

The works of Gottfried Helnwein and John Buck will be featured in exhibitions opening in the winter of 2011. That summer, the Crocker will present “A Summer of Impressionism,” with works by renowned French and American artists showcased in exhibitions alongside that of California impressionists, one of the central strengths of the Crocker’s permanent collection.

Capital Campaign

The Crocker’s expansion is supported by a $100 million capital campaign and more than $90 million has been raised to date. The campaign has received generous support with more than 20 donations of $1 million or more. The new wing will be named the Teel Family Pavilion in recognition of a lead gift from the Joyce and Jim Teel Family Foundation. Building on this success, the museum is launching a broad-based fund-raising and member campaign.

City of Sacramento

Founded in the early years of the Gold Rush, Sacramento became the capital of California in 1854. In 2009, Sacramento was cited as one of America’s 10 favorite cities by the Pew Research Center. Greater Sacramento, with a population of 2.1 million, is one of the fastest growing regions in the United States.

Located at the intersection of the American and the Sacramento rivers in California’s Central Valley, the City of Sacramento offers a cosmopolitan convergence of old and new, from notable historical sites to a vibrant cultural and civic life.

Sacramento features a range of museums, art galleries, and performing arts organizations, including the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sacramento Opera, the Sacramento Ballet, California Musical Theatre, B Street Theatre, and the Sacramento Theatre Company, as well as the California State Railroad Museum and the California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts. The city’s award-winning restaurants highlight local produce and wines from the surrounding region, including nearby Amador County, an area poised to rival the Napa Valley. In Old Sacramento, a 28-acre town of historic buildings just two blocks from the Crocker, visitors can immerse themselves in the city’s early history. The tree-lined American River Parkway, running along a 23-mile stretch of that river, provides equestrians, joggers and cyclists a place to enjoy one of the region’s many natural attractions.

Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects

Founded in 1968, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects is a New York-based firm offering master planning, architectural, interior and product design services. Gwathmey Siegel has completed over four hundred projects for cultural, educational, healthcare, corporate, government, and private clients throughout the United States and abroad. The 45-person firm has an international reputation for its work and is the winner of more than 100 design awards. The firm’s designs have been featured in numerous exhibitions and histories of contemporary architecture.

Gwathmey Siegel received the American Institute of Architects' highest honor—the Firm Award—for “approaching every project with a fresh eye, a meticulous attention to detail, a keen appreciation for environmental and economic concerns and a strong belief in collaborative effort.”

Crocker Art Museum

Museum hours are 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Tuesday – Sunday; and 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of the month. Admission ranges from $3 – $6 and is free every Sunday from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. More information is available at (916) 808-7000 or crockerartmuseum.org.

Crocker Art Museum Expansion to Open on October 10, 2010

New Crocker is a Focal Point of Sacramento’s Emergence as a Cultural Center

Crocker Art Museum Expansion
to Open on October 10, 2010