Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 101

1 TIT rr i- -tfl: The museum at 200 Eastern Pkwy was dsalgnsd in 1893 and modsmizsd In tha 1930a In tha next 20 years museum officials hope to double Its size BY KARIM LIPSOM Grand plans at the Brooklyn Museum :4 C' -i i '4 JA si director of the museum "Each phase i be no larger than $20 million Many projects can be $4 million or $5 (Gearing up for the fiind-raising effort the museum recently hired a new vice director for development Horace Solomon background in manufacturing and as the former codirector of the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York gives him contacts in both the business and art worlds) Though he stressed that details will depend on the plan that is selected Eddey said the museum anticipates that each phase will be both architecturally and financially independent the mnaanm would thus not be left with an obviously incomplete building if construction were halted anywhere along the line "If we raise the money we could stop without any problem" he said Significantly paving the road toward this project the city is already building a $2 million storage facility at the museum and has committed itself to a $7 million climate-control project for the entire museum to begin this summer The dty will continue to be a significant contributor for capital improvements over the next two decades said a spokesman for the Department of Cultural Affairs "In recent years with major projects the dty has contributed approximately a third of the said Richard Bruno the assistant commissioner for public affairs 20 years I expect our commitment will be on that Given such public announcements of dty support and the hum of private activity in surrounding neighborhoods the optimism in the aged halls of the Brooklyn Museum may become increasingly understandable a feeling that Brooklyn is moving in the right direction said Martin "I think the timing now is jects only 5 percent of which can be on view at any time they say New gallery space would for mmpU allow major holdings in such areas as and textiles Spanish Colonial art and American Indian artifacts either currently in storage or exhibited piecemeal to get their own exhibition maces There would also be more room for special exhibitions which often figure among a greatest crowd pleasers about 56000 visitors for example came to a recent Jennifer Bartlett retrospective mounted under the guidance of museum director Robert Buck who has a special interest in contemporary art It is evident that those involved in the plan believe the renovation will itself draw more peo-to this venerable but frayed institution "We it will be a magnet to people and to companies- said Alastair Martin chairman of the board of trustees trying to pull in the people to use it as a major facility and not just go to the Except in its broad outlines the plan is still unformulated The museum is now sponsoring an architectural competition for a design mng selected firms with the winner to be announced next falL Key elements of the winning plan will be the resolution of the back of the building which was left incomplete when construction stopped in 1927 and a physical link to the Botanic Garden The garden gets almost 750000 visitors a year few of whom currently venture into the museum With a rebuilt back entrance and a physical link said Martin the museum is more likely to draw casual visitors from the garden The master plan will be designed as a series of phaaaa that puts the massive venture "into a much more realistic said Boy Eddey IN SHORT WHEN THE BROOKLYN Museum wee in 1893 it featured a monumental limestone staircase that led to the third floor of the buildings main The steps were removed in the 1930s during an ill-conceived "modernization" campaign creating a main entrance that now leads into the basement Hie change dramatically altered the facade of the building leaving it in the words of one staff member "like a face without a nose" In a sense the change was symbolic of much that has happened to the Brooklyn Museum since its early days Majestically conceived as the largest museum it was left five-sixths unbuilt As the surrounding neighborhoods deteriorated over the years the museum lost cachet mi attendance to mnnums in Manhattan Its fortunes hit a low ebb in the mid-1970s when fiscal constraints caused the closing of some of its galleries Recentlv thought under new leadership attendance and membership have posted some mins and the museum seems to be rousing itself from what its board chairman calls a "sleeping giant" rde among the museums At the same tune major renovation and new construction pngects most notably approximately $1 billion worth of investments in office retail and residential projects in the downtown section are changing the face of some areas of Brooklyn Apparently banking on these and other signs of resurgence in the borough the museum has announced a long-range plan to nearly double the size of its building in the right place now" said Joan Darragh the museum's planning director "What was our greatest liability is now our greatest The plan to be completed in phases over 20 years would increase the aiie of the museum from 450000 square feet to about 800000 square fret It would also restore the facade renovate its interior and connect the building to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden now separated from the museum by a parking lot The estimated cost of these changes is between $50 million and $100 million In terms of annual attendance alone the Brooklyn Museum is not bursting its physical confines Though it has increased nearly 20 percent since 1983 attendance is still relatively modest at 350000 visitors a year Manhattan's Whitney Museum ofAmerican Art and Guggenheim Museum for instance both have about 500000 visitors annually and the Metropolitan Museum of Art pulls in about 4 million people Yet despite the Brooklyn Museum's attendance figures staff and board members there point to a number of factors that figured in the decision to mount a long-range expansion campaign rather than aim for a facelift of existing faculties The um has about 200000 exhihitahle ob- modern society makes its presence felt too: Alongside images of shamans and animals Bee work inspired by planes boats and the TVs of the tundra For information call 324-0716 Southampton exhibition In Southampton the Parrish Art Museum is devotingits spring exhibition to selections from its collection of works on paper The collection has been mnhad in recent years by significant gifts and the show includes pieces that are on display at the Parrish for the first time These include works by Joe Zucker Ossip Zadkine and Larry Rivers Charles Burchfield John Graham Lee Kraaner and Don Judd are among the other artists represented The show is on view through April 27 For information call 283-2118 Arctic visions at Guild Hall They call themselves Inuit meaning "the real though we know them as Eskimos These days mostly forsaken the igloo for heated homes and given up hunting far jaunts to the supermarket Thanks to a Canadian government art program that began in the 1950s though retained their age-old tradition of carving stone ivory bone and caribou antlers and have learned the modern methods of printmaking Visitors to the Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton have the chance to see some of this work through May 4 "Arctic Vision: Art of the Canadian displays rantampnraiy sculpture and graphics by 60 artists from the Hudson Bay region of northern Canada While such traditional themes as hunting and myths are covered fl kjktysj i 4 iiUv rii i -Ui I if.