• the217
• Arts
• Krannert Art Museum renovations ahead of schedule

Related Media

Krannert Art Museum, Champaign

Related Venues

Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion »
Address: 500 E. Peabody Drive Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: (217) 333-1861
Show on map

Related Articles

• U View Student Photography Exhibition and Competition at the Krannert Art Museum
• Best Art Gallery: Krannert Art Museum

The Krannert Art Museum’s current $3 million, multifaceted facilities update is on-budget and ahead of schedule, according to museum Director Kathleen Harleman.

Though all exhibits are currently closed to the public, the museum will be reopened to visitors on the evening of August 25, well before the completion of the renovation projects.

Under the supervision and management of the University’s Facilities and Services department, the Chicago based Environmental Systems Design, Inc. begun work at KAM after having been let contracts in January to update the museum’s electrical and Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems in an effort to prevent damage to the museum’s collection and provide the facility with a more controllable temperature and humidity range. In the past, works on display at KAM may have been vulnerable to potentially damaging environmental conditions, which the HVAC renovations aim to fix.

“Our collection demands a fairly narrow range of fluctuation in terms of temperature and humidity,” says Harleman. “For instance, paper suffers greatly when humidity is above a certain point. Paintings suffer if the humidity is actually too low or high. There are standards [of safe ranges] that have been developed over the years. Our previous system was having a lot of difficulty keeping [our environment] within those ranges and was developing a kind of cyclical fluctuation.”

These hard to control alterations have caused consistent repair needs to the gallery walls, buckled some paper exhibits, and led some private art holders and other museums to deny displaying work at Krannert. “There have definitely been loans in the past that have been refused because we didn’t meet the standards,” says Harleman. The Krannert Art Museum expects that to change post-renovation, which will provide better security for loaned works and the museum’s permanent exhibits. “This is a very important collection. We’re responsible for it for the state of Illinois.”

KAM is also looking forward to greater energy and cost efficiency after the maintenance work is done. “There’s no question that this is going to save us money, for a number of reasons.” In addition to installing a more state of the art HVAC system, project engineers used the repair time as an opportunity to secure the porous building’s exterior envelope by removing old, dried out, pliable calking and replacing it.

Though differences to the building will not necessarily be seen by the public, Harleman believes the many students who take courses in the KAM classrooms will notice a difference from the past: “Students who had been subjected to the clunking out of parts of the system hopefully won’t be subjected to that [anymore].”

Harleman expresses gratitude to ESD and the University for their work in the project. “We’re just really grateful that the University recognized that this was an important thing to do and made it possible to happen.”

Upon re-opening, the museum will host a public reception to celebrate the new season and usher in five new exhibits, including a month long display of works from school of Art and Design instructors. “It’s a great opportunity to talk to them and see them as professional, working artists,” says Harleman. The event is free and features music by Los Guapos and a cash bar provided by Corkscrew. “It’s always a really fun party.”

For more information about the museum and the fall’s exhibits, visit http://kam.illinois.edu/.