One of L.A.’s favorite free museums will be getting a facelift during 2017 and 2018. The Getty Villa has announced a renovation project that will expand the current gallery spaces, update the exhibitions, add new galleries dedicated to specific topics, create a new and larger Family Forum space and even roll out better public wifi in the museum so you can post those essential Getty ‘grams.
If you’ve visited the Villa plenty of times before, you’ll want to make a point to come back once the new exhibits are staged since they will be displaying objects from the collection that have been off-view and will also feature long-term loans from outside collections of non-European art and antiquities to put the Getty’s collection into a more global context of the Classical world.
They’re also changing the exhibition design to get away from the current displays which group similar objects by theme—such as a gallery showing a bunch of examples of mythological heroes, drawing in a variety of works from different places and times that take on that subject matter—to one based on a narrative approach to the development of art and culture in Etruscan, Greek and Roman societies, according to a release by the museum.
The renovations will be rolled out gradually so that the museum can stay open throughout the process, though visitors will notice a few changes going on around them. Galleries will be intermittently closed as they get overhauled and, starting this spring, the Outer Peristyle Pool will be closed for restorations. To make up for the missing pool area, the museum has promised that they will be announcing some special live event programming for the spring and summer season. Over at the Getty Center, everything will be open as usual.
All of the renovations will be complete by spring of next year, after which we’ll have a new and improved Getty Villa to enjoy.
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