The Museu de Arte de São Paulo Inaugurates An Expansion Project With An Innovative 14-Story Edifice Linked By Underground Connection To Lina Bo Bardi's Historic Building
SÃO PAULO, Sept. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) has just begun a new expansion project to enlarge its physical space, attaching its present installations to the neighboring building, which will be thoroughly remodeled. The new building will add 6,945 m2 of floor space with 14 new floors of galleries, classrooms, collection storage area, conservation lab, restaurant, museum shop and event areas – all linked by an underground connection to the current building. The project will make the museum's physical structure commensurate with its institutional ambition, transforming MASP into one of the most modern museum infrastructures of Latin America and preparing it for the coming generations.
It is the most significant undertaking in the history of the museum after its 1968 transfer from its original location in the headquarters of the Diários Associados, on rua 7 de Abril, to its present building on Avenida Paulista. The reason behind that move was for the museum to have a home worthy of its collection.
"We will increase the museum's exhibition capacity by 66%, integrating the two buildings. I believe that this expansion consolidates the museum and Avenida Paulista as a cultural axis, perhaps the most important cultural axis of Brazil, of which MASP, without a doubt, is the mainstay," says Alfredo Setubal, chairman of the board of MASP.
The current expansion will bring multiple gains: increased public access; a new and better structure to offer public programs and courses; a larger environment, equipped with the latest technologies for the restoration and conservation of iconic artworks; the upgrading of technical installations and more space for showing works that belong to the museum's collection and which, coupled with the acquisitions made year by year, tell increasingly diverse, inclusive and plural histories of art.
As a way of preserving and valorizing the institution's history, the original building will receive the name of its architect, Lina Bo Bardi (1914–1992), and the new building will bear the name of the museum's first artistic director, Pietro Maria Bardi (1900–1999). These names, together with the name of its founder – which appears in the museum's full name (Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand) – will complete the homage to MASP's founding trio.
"MASP's collection has been growing. Our plan is for Lina's building, especially its sublevel floors, to be dedicated to showing works that belong to the museum's collection. For their part, the new galleries will be used for temporary exhibitions," explains Adriano Pedrosa, MASP's artistic director.
The cost of the project is around R$ 180 million, to be entirely financed by donations from individuals – following a trait that MASP has had since its founding, of engaging private society in a wide range of projects. "Allowing for the construction of this building through donations is the crowning of a new administrative model for MASP, an institution whose pillars are planted in civil society," says Heitor Martins, the museum's CEO.
"The involvement of civil society is increasingly important in institutions. We see this not only in Brazil, but around the world. Inspired by this, we understood that it was possible to make the expansion possible in partnership with civil society, which has already been engaging with the museum in recent years and allowed it to reach the outstanding level it is on today," states Geyze Diniz, vice president of MASP's board. "The Expanding MASP project is the largest operation of Brazilian philanthropy supported by Brazilian families, without tax law incentives or any governmental stimulus," explains Ronaldo Cezar Coelho, president of the Expanding MASP committee.
The architectural design was co-authored by Júlio Neves, an architect who served as MASP's president for 14 years, from 1995 to 2009, and the architectural firm METRO Arquitetos Associados, of partners Martin Corullon and Gustavo Cedroni.
The work is slated to be completed in 2024. At the end of the revamping, MASP will have a total area of 17,680 m2 (today it has 10,485 m2). Besides increasing the physical space, the new construction will enlarge what MASP is and already represents on the national and international scene.
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SOURCE The Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP)
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