Refreshing Twin Oaks’ historic foyer meant a return to original materials, punctuated with the mansion’s fountain sculpture
A forbidding facade. A tired courtyard. A cavernous entry. What could welcoming the public at America’s oldest art museum look like with the injection of great sculpture?
Re-define the entry
Creativity should define the museum from the moment of entry. Initiating a series of projects with artists including Leonardo Drew and installations of contemporary work by Mel Edwards, David Smith, and Ai WeiWei shaped the Main Street lobby in powerful ways
Enliven the street
Four years of audacious programming blurred the line between civic life and the museum’s walls, with new work by Sean Scully and Conrad Shawcross joining earlier work by Tony Smith, William Turnbull, and a historical statue of Nathan Hale (1886, restored 2020). New installations and a commitment to neighboring installation (e.g. Alexander Calder’s Stegosaurus and Carl Andre’s Stone Field Sculpture) allowed for opportunities for outdoor programming during the depths of Covid and through to today.
Tap opportunity
Rescalling the public experience of the central courtyard—once a vibrant site for sculpture—required remediating and removing a Claes Oldenburg work, installing a turf platform, and trying out installations of human-scale work by artists such as Herbert Ferber.
Unrealized was the redecking/creation of a green roof envisioned with Elizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architecture.