Special to Independent Newsmedia
After nearly four months of major renovations, Phoenix Art Museum will reopen its Art of the Americas + Europe galleries in November.
The galleries will open Friday, Nov. 28, the day after Thanksgiving, in the newly dedicated James K. Ballinger Wing, a 17,000-square foot space named in honor of the Museum’s Director Emeritus, who served in the leadership role for four decades until his 2014 retirement.
Home to 10 gallery spaces, the Ballinger Wing will present historical American, Western American, Viceregal Latin American, and European art from the Phoenix Art Museum collection, alongside contemporary works by Amalia Mesa-Bains, Virgil Ortiz, and Federico Solmi, among other new acquisitions and significant loans.
Special exhibitions titled “Curated Encounters” will also offer focused explorations on Arizona artist Ed Mell and George Elbert Burr. Also, look for the renovated Thorne Miniature Rooms and the relocated and reimagined Ullman Center for the Art of Philip C. Curtis.
“Phoenix Art Museum is excited to honor James K. Ballinger’s incredible legacy with the naming of our Art of the Americas + Europe Wing, which reopens this fall with more than 250 outstanding works from the Museum’s Collection and beyond,” Jeremy Mikolajczak, the museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO, shared in a press release. “This first comprehensive renovation of these gallery spaces in nearly a decade, with their new installations and interpretative texts and materials, is a testament to the museum’s curatorial team.”
Ed Mell’s “Towering Clouds/Lake Powell,” from 1990, as oil on canvas, will be on display in the new the Ballinger Wing. Courtesy of The Stéphane Janssen Art Foundation. Edmund Paul Mell Jr Trust.
(Provided by Phoenix Art Museum)