Opening Reception for Museums in the 21st Century: Concepts, Projects, Buildings

More than a dozen museum building projects from the original  Art Centre Basel exhibition showcase the current transformations in architecture.  The museum interiors and exteriors modeled in this exhibition reflect a range of responses to the new and expanded visions of museums in the 21st century, as museums redefine their roles as cultural centers that have many functions, including entertainment and education.

Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, Daniel Libeskind, Tadao Ando, Spacelab’s (Peter Cook/Colin Fournier), Rafael Viñoly, and Yoshio Taniguchi are members of a pantheon of architects regarded for their original, innovative, and groundbreaking designs. In common, they were all commissioned between 2000 and 2010 to design museums – some realized, others in progress, and a few indefinitely on hold.

The first ten years of the 21st century witnessed the apex internationally for the commissioning of museum buildings by star architects, such as these. The many new museum buildings, renovations, and/or expansions taking place all over the world interested the director of the Art Centre Basel, Suzanne Greub, who then developed the exhibition Museums of the 21st Century.

The exhibition opens on Friday, January 29, 5:30 – 7:30 with a reception hosted by the Women’s Board of the Museum of New Mexico and will run through April 18, 2010.

This exhibition has been made possible in part through the generous support of The Burnett Foundation and Thornburg Investment Management.

Visit the webpage for Museums in the 21st Century

An ART CENTRE BASEL exhibition: Suzanne Greub (Idea and Concept), Daniel Boos (Exhibition Management), www.artcentrebasel.com