[MSN] The Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale will close its doors to the public during the summer months. Starting June 1, the museum begins the overhaul of its security and fire suppression systems.

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Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Art to close this summer for repairs 
By Emma Trelles
Arts Writer

May 3, 2007



The Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale will close its doors to the public
during the summer months. Starting June 1, the museum begins the overhaul of
its security and fire suppression systems, as well as renovations to make
the venue more accessible for people with disabilities. The museum's
executive committee decided on the action last Thursday, citing the slow
summer season as an apt time to protect its artworks and least affect
visitors. The summer art camp, held in nearby studio space, will continue as
scheduled.

"The Tut renovations were just the beginning of the improvements," says
director Irv Lippman, who adds that other tweaks include replacement of the
front doors and windows, which were not constructed to hurricane-proof code
during the Tutankhamun exhibit. The first- and second-floor public restrooms
are also slated for refurbishing, and the museum plans on sprucing up its
entrance and lobby areas in anticipation of its 50-year anniversary in 2008.

"It's not uncommon to take an intermission," Lippman says. "When the work
has to get done, it has to get done." Around the country other arts venues
undergo their own makeovers, including the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth
and New York City's Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.

Funding was raised in part by a challenge posed by the Museum of Art's past
chair, Doug Eagon, who promised $100,000 toward building repairs if the
board matched an additional $400,000. It did, with an extra quarter of a
million granted by board member Holly Hudson Bodenweber. But the museum is
doubling fund-raising efforts because the $750,000 in hand still does not
cover its costs.

"The building is 20 years old, and we've had over 1million visitors in the
last three years. It really puts us in the forefront of art museums in terms
of attendance. During Tut the pipes blew in the restrooms from overuse,"
Lippman says. He explains the million-dollar grant the county gave the
museum last year mostly helped with structural repairs, such as a new roof
and air conditioning system, but these were bare necessities to accommodate
Tut.

"This is a building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes; it's a gem and it
needs to be refurbished."

Because of the upgrades, the museum has postponed "Unbroken Ties: Dialogues
in Cuban Art," a show mostly composed of paintings and photographs by both
exiled and national Cuban artists; it's now slated to open in April of next
year. "Situational Comedy: Humor in Recent Art" has been canceled.

The museum opens its coming season on Sept. 7 with "The Quilts of Gee's
Bend." The show features the quilts of four generations of African-American
women from the rural Alabama community of Gee's Bend.

Emma Trelles can be reached at 954-356-4689 or etrelles at sun-sentinel.com.