The Amon Carter Museum of American Art will close during the summer for three months of renovations.
The museum plans free reopening events this September following the closure, with nearly two weeks of members-only preview days prior to a grand reopening for the public on September 14. The September 14 community celebration begins at 10 a.m. with a daylong event during our annual Party on the Porch featuring live music, food trucks, and cash bars.
On June 3, 2019, the museum building and galleries will close to the public to complete the building-enhancement project that began in October 2018. During the summer, renovations will extend from the upper galleries to the museum’s first floor and campus, culminating in the total transformation of the visitor experience at the Carter.
“We are entering the beginning of a historic period of change at the museum. Through the support of our community, we are able to change the way our visitors experience our collection and our iconic building,” said Andrew J. Walker, Executive Director. “We are excited to reopen our doors this fall and introduce the new Carter to our community through fun events and great art.”
The renovation will see all the gallery spaces be enhanced with new sightlines, moveable walls for highly configurable layouts, state-of-the-art lighting and hardwood flooring throughout the upstairs galleries. The photography vaults have been expanded to allow for decades of future collection growth and to preserve these holdings with the latest advances in climate control. The main campus and front entrance will feature increased accessibility. “Through our new installation – which aims to be elegant, dynamic and thought-provoking – the collection will sing in ways it never has before,” said Brett Abbott, Director of Collections and Exhibitions. “The museum is poised to inspire more people more deeply in the years ahead, and I look forward to sharing the new galleries with our community.”
The new galleries will showcase the permanent collection, with engaging thematic installations that draw connections between the historical collection and contemporary works by American artists. In the enlarged special exhibition space, where the museum features traveling exhibitions, visitors can see the major exhibition Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940–1950, chronicling the formative beginnings of Parks’ extensive and groundbreaking career. Additional exhibitions in the new space include Set in Motion: Camille Utterback and Art That Moves, an interactive digital installation presented in conversation with works by prominent female artists in the Carter’s collection and private collections; Puente Nuevo by Justin Favela, a site-specific commission by Las Vegas-based artist Justin Favela; Seeing in Detail: Scott and Stuart Gentling’s Birds of Texas, featuring the collaborative watercolor series of Texas birds by these beloved Fort Worth artists; and Seven and Seven Flower, a large-scale sculpture by Texas artist James Surls. Carter members will be the first to see these exhibitions and the newly renovated Carter with members-only hours and events Tuesday, September 3 through Friday, September 13 (the museum will be closed on Monday, September 9).