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Inside Studio Gang’s Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts ahead of its 2023 opening

2022-10-20T13:12:00-04:00

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is nearing completion ahead of a predicted April 2023 opening. Designed by Studio Gang and Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects following their selection for the commission in 2016, the project has seen the unification of several existing structures on the museum grounds under a “blossoming” central addition.

Photo credit: Tim Hursley

The 133,000-square-foot building includes galleries, an art school, performing art spaces, public gathering spaces, a restaurant, and a museum store. Over 14,000 works of art will be housed in the museum, some dating back to the 14th century.

Photo credit: Tim Hursley

“Our design strengthens the museum’s role as a cultural anchor for Little Rock by uniting once-disparate structures into a cohesive whole and opening the building to the surrounding city and landscape,” said Jeanne Gang about the scheme. “By optimizing its functional spaces and expanding its galleries, classrooms, and social spaces, the building transforms the vi...

Construction images of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts reveal the completion of its pleated concrete roof

2021-04-28T14:39:00-04:00

In January, Archinect previously reported on the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA) and its plans to open in May 2022. The 133,000-square-foot Museum is designed by Studio Gang in collaboration with landscape architecture firm SCAPE and Little Rock-based Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects. While initial renders of the new Museum's design didn't provide specifics to the Museum's distinct roof design, recent construction images showcase a signature roof design that flows, "blossoming out to the north and south," as described by the firm. "Spanning the length of the building, the roofline connects new construction and renovated spaces and establishes AMFA's new architectural identity."

Image © Timothy Hursley

Located within Little Rock's historic Macarthur Park, Studio Gang's design process began by studying the Museum's original building from 1937 and its eight additions. Aiming to create a renewed architectural identity that integrates the building with its surrounding landscape and the ...

Studio Gang-designed Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, formerly Arkansas Arts Center, to open in 2022

2021-01-27T16:48:00-05:00

The Arkansas Arts Center has a new name: the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. Leaders gathered [...] provide an update on its facility, which is being renovated and expanded. [...] Designs for the additional $14 million in funds, Ramirez said, include new plans for 15% more gallery space than initially planned, added programming and “transforming even more of MacArthur Park into landscape space designed to host a variety or programs and events.”

A new Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts building, designed by Studio Gang with landscape architects SCAPE and Little Rock-based Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, is already under construction in Little Rock's MacArthur Park.

"The central gesture of the new Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts — a folded, thin-plate structure running through the museum complex — lends AMFA a highly visible new architectural identity and connect its diverse programing spaces," explains the project description.

"This roofline spans the length of the museum from north to south, blossoming toward downtown Little Rock at the north and Historic MacArthur Park to the south. In concert with new construction, the design once again reveals the original 1937 limestone facade of the Museum of Fine Arts, a precursor to AMFA, as the main north entrance."

"Inside, the central stem opens up a new axis of pedestrian circulation through the building from Crescent Drive at the north and opening in...