 "Photo: Kathleen Mehocic")
It was announced in a campus-wide e-mail on Dec. 7 that the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (FLLAC) would be closing to the public from May 2010 to January 2011 for necessary roof repairs.
The building itself is a 1993 design by Cesar Pelli and has the unfortunate feature of a flat roof in a Northeastern climate. Although the roof has always been a predicament for the FLLAC, it was only recently that the inevitability of more drastic measures became apparent.
“The roof was designed to last 20 years, but has begun to show signs of fatigue after 15 years. There are various locations where the roofing material has started to fail and sporadic slight leaking has been detected in various locations for the past year,” explained James Mundy, the Anne Hendricks Bass Director of the FLLAC, in an e-mailed statement. “While these locations were repaired and the leaks stopped, they would soon start elsewhere. Thus, a consultant was called it to make a comprehensive survey and recommended that we replace the flat roof over the main galleries.”
The FLLAC has wasted no time in accepting the temporary setback and has already released plans they hope to undertake during their closing. “My first reaction [to the closing] was that I was sorry to see this happen since we have been riding such a positive wave of momentum in our programs of late. However, these are also good moments to take stock of the overall plan for the institution and consider things such as a complete revised installation of the permanent collection,” wrote Mundy.
Another relatively large-scale project the FLLAC hopes to undertake is reworking their current database system so that it becomes an accessible resource even for those not well-versed in the collection. “We can focus on some internal needs such as imaging more of the collection and converting to a more user-friendly collections database that can be used by everyone,” explained Mundy.
Other projects include the expansion of the FLLAC’s outreach program and long-term exhibition planning.
The FLLAC is also working to devise a means of best accommodating the curricular needs of art students and professors during the repairs. “We are taking steps to make sure that all curricular needs involving the collection (used for classes such as Art 105 and those of other departments) will be met by installing the works in the [Prints and Drawings] Galleries as an extended Project Gallery concept,” explained Mundy. “Faculty and students will still be admitted to the building, but it will be closed to the general public.”
All in all, students and faculty are not too concerned about the closing. “It’s good that they can work it out so we only lose a semester,” said Professor of Art Susan Kuretsky.
María Laura Ribadeneira ’10, a representative from the Art Majors Committee, has similar faith that the FLLAC will have little problem maintaining its status as a resource for students. “The Art Center has been a very important resource for almost all my art history classes,” Ribadeneira wrote in an e-mailed statement. “Being able to see the original works of art is not always possible in an art history class, and the collection at the Loeb made that possible. It is such a vast collection that every one of my classes could use its pieces as examples to see first hand.”
Efforts will also be taken to maintain the FLLAC’s highly popular “Late Night at the Lehman Loeb” evenings. The new event, cleverly titled “FLLAC in Exile” will be a less-frequent interpretation of these evenings, emphasizing alternative forms of art. “We’d like to explore the use of new media and performance art projects at other campus locations,” wrote Mundy. “I’m certainly hopeful next year that everything will go on in a way that is fruitful for everyone,” concluded Kuretsky.
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