The entry space of many museums is dramatic and grand, but it is usually devoid of artwork. Visitors often have to go a considerable distance before they actually get to interact with artwork on a personal level. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's (MFA) recent reopening of the historic Huntington Avenue entrance, however, allows visitors to once again use the museum's most elegant entrance and interact with artwork from the moment they walk in the door.
Immediately beyond the entrance, which was reopened on April 23, stands Thomas Crawford's striking marble sculpture "Orpheus and Cerberus" (1843). This sculpture depicts the mythological figure Orpheus, who has just put three-headed Cerberus -- the guardian of the underworld -- to sleep with his lyre, rushing into the underworld to find his wife, Eurydice.
This sculpture, according to its accompanying description, was originally placed near the entrance to the MFA's first building in Copley Square, but even today, in its new location, its polished white sheen is visible from outside the museum doors. It is dramatic, thought-provoking and a perfect introduction to the many artistic treasures just beyond the entrance to the museum itself.
The sculpture, however, is only a small piece of the changes made to the entrance. As part of a master renovation project, the entire entrance area of the building was reconfigured. Outside, the circular driveway was expanded, the plaza at the top of the stairs was doubled in size and landscaping was added on each side of the doors. Inside, the old ticketing desk was moved and replaced with a sculpture court, through which visitors must pass to go to the new ticketing desk.
"When they reconfigured this space, they really wanted it accessible to all and they really wanted the visitor to be able to encounter artwork as soon as they got into the building," Kelly Gifford, public relations manager for the MFA, told the Daily.
To that end, the entrance was also made handicapped-accessible. "With these design changes now, anyone can enter through that front, grand, historic entrance ... which I think is really one of the most important things about the renovation," Gifford said.
In the past, handicapped visitors to the MFA had to enter through the West Wing Entrance, which is now closed, but with the renovation, all visitors will be able to "walk in and be right underneath the Sargent Murals," Gifford said.
These classically themed murals, created by the famed American painter John Singer Sargent between 1917 and 1925, adorn the museum's rotunda as well as the ceiling above the museum's grand staircase beyond the Huntington Avenue entrance's front doors.
The entry space is dominated by gray, stone columns, and with its subtle lighting and large floral arrangements, it recalls the ground level entrances to European palaces. Several pieces of sculpture and several modern paintings, including one by famed painter Lucien Freud, are displayed in the new entry and ticketing area.
While Foster & Partners, the architecture firm that designed and completed the project, created a grand entry, they also went to great lengths to link the new space to the existing structure. "One of the reasons we commissioned Foster & Partners, the architects, was they really have this history of blending the old and the new," Gifford said. "So [they took] ... an historic building and ... work[ed] in 20th or 21st century elements ... for what visitors need today."
Accordingly, in the entry drive and plaza, Foster & Partners "used the same granite that was used in the [building's] 1909 façade," according to Gifford. The company also "used Tennessee Marble [for the] floors which ... [is] the same marble that's used ... in the lower rotunda of the museum," she said.
This project was one of the stages of a master renovation and reorganization plan that is currently ongoing at the MFA and set to end in late 2010. The project will culminate in the opening of a new wing for the Art of the Americas, also designed by Foster & Partners.
"[The new entrance] really is a little glimpse of what you're going to see continuing with the construction and the opening of the new wing," Gifford said.
The reopening of the Huntington Avenue entrance coincided with the reopening of three galleries (The 20th-Century Art Gallery, the Italian Renaissance Gallery and the Sargent Rotunda Gallery), and visitors can continue to look forward to more openings as the renovation project continues. This is one of the project's most important stages, however, because it brings visitors into the heart of the museum's collection located along the central corridor between the Huntington Avenue and Fenway entrances. Most importantly, it allows visitors to interact with art right away, which is, after all, the ultimate goal of art museums.
