Brooklyn Museum of Art

Brooklyn Museum
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Brooklyn Museum, June 2008
Location:	Brooklyn, NY
Coordinates:	40°40′13.64″N 73°57′51.45″W / 40.6704556°N 73.9642917°W / 40.6704556; -73.9642917
Built/Founded:	1895
Architect:	McKim, Mead & White; French,Daniel Chester
Architectural style(s):	Beaux-Arts
Governing body:	Private
Added to NRHP:	August 22, 1977
NRHP Reference#:	77000944 [1]

Statue of Liberty in back lot

The Brooklyn Museum, located at 200 Eastern Parkway, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, is the second-largest art museum in New York City, and one of the largest in the United States. Arnold L. Lehman is the museum's Director.

One of the premier art institutions in the world, its permanent collection includes more than one-and-a-half million objects, from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art, and the art of many other cultures. Housed in a 560,000 square foot (52,000 m²), Beaux-Arts building, approximately 500,000 patrons visit the museum each year. Located in Central Brooklyn, the museum is a half-hour from midtown Manhattan and about 15 minutes from downtown Brooklyn. It is served by the Eastern Parkway–Brooklyn Museum subway station on the IRT Eastern Parkway Line (2 3 4), and the nearby Botanic Garden station of the Franklin Avenue Shuttle.

The Museum is located on Eastern Parkway, at Washington Avenue. It is co-located with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Mount Prospect Park, and the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The museum sits at the border of the Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and Flatbush neighborhoods. It is near Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

History

Opened in 1897, the Brooklyn Museum building is a steel frame structure—built to the standards of classical masonry—designed by the famous architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White and built by the Carlin Construction Company. Daniel Chester French, the noted sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial, was the sculptor of two allegorical figures, Brooklyn and Manhattan (carved in 1916, and relocated to the museum in 1963), and of the figures on the pediment.

The Brooklyn Museum changed its name to Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1997. On March 12, 2004, the museum announced that it would revert to its previous name.

Funding

The museum hosted the Charles Saatchi exhibition Sensation in 1999, resulting in a court battle over New York City's municipal funding of controversial art.

In 2005, the museum was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.^[2][3]

Major benefactors include Frank Lusk Babbott.

Art and exhibitions

The Brooklyn Museum exhibits collections that seek to embody the rich artistic heritage of world cultures. The museum is well-known for its expansive collections of Egyptian and African art, in addition to 17th, 18th, and 19th century paintings, throughout a wide range of schools.

In 2002, the museum purchased the work The Dinner Party by feminist artist Judy Chicago, funded by a gift from The Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation. Its permanent exhibition began in 2007, in the museum's Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

In 2008, curator Edna Russman announced that a third of the Coptic art held in the museum's collection—second-largest in North America—is fake.^[4] Of 30 works of art, Russman believes 10 are faked. The fake artworks will be displayed in an exhibition starting in 2009.^[4]

Contemporary artists have also been showcased in various exhibitions, such as the work of Patrick Kelly, Chuck Close, Denis Peterson, Ron Mueck, Takashi Murakami, Mat Benote^[5], Kiki Smith, Jim Dine, Robert Rauschenberg, Sylvia Sleigh, William Wegman and Banksy^[6].

Programs

In 2000, the Brooklyn Museum started the Student Museum Apprentice Program in which the museum hires teens ages 13–17, to give tours in the museum's galleries during the summer, assist with the museum's weekend family programs throughout the year, participate in talks with museum curators, serve as a teen advisory board to the museum, and help plan teen events.

The first Saturday of the month in the summer, the Brooklyn Museum stays open late with free family events, which include arts and crafts, live music and a dance party.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brooklyn Museum

• Education in New York City
• Floyd Abrams and the Brooklyn Museum case
• List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Egyptian antiquities in the Brooklyn Museum

References

External links

• Brooklyn Museum website