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Recent Acquisitions Releases Press Release Archive |
Tyler Museum of Art Details Plans for Future Growth Tyler, TX—Tyler Museum of Art officials provided more information today about plans for future development of the Museum’s facilities. Kimberley Tomio, TMA director, said the plans were announced in an attempt to dispel rumors about any preliminary decisions concerning if, when or where the Museum might expand or build. “The Museum’s board and staff have, for some time, been studying our current situation to assess whether it would be feasible or advisable to either move to another location or expand our building,” Ms. Tomio said. “This is, in essence, a good problem to have because it has been necessitated by increased demands for our products and services—i.e. culturally enriching experiences in the visual arts. I must state, however, that at this point no decision has been made by the Board concerning any change to our current facility.” Ms. Tomio said that Tyler Independent School District student art tours continue to increase, as well as requests from other area schools, both public and private. She said the Museum, which opened in 1971, has only one classroom, which is barely large enough to accommodate 24 students at a time. Scheduling various groups has become a significant problem, and for the past several years there has been inadequate room for college classes to meet in the facility. In addition to the increase in demand for school tours, recent exhibitions have brought in more tour groups from outside Tyler. The Museum’s small café, kitchen and gift shop have been limited in the services they could provide these audiences. Similarly, Tyler Museum of Art has been unable to pursue certain significant traveling exhibitions because of the lack of gallery space to show larger exhibits. “There are some wonderful works out there in amazing exhibitions that we just cannot bring to Tyler because of our limited gallery space,” said Betty Summers, TMA board president. “We also have a problem with limited vault space for our permanent collection.” Ms. Summers explained that the Museum’s permanent collection now stands at more than 700 pieces, focused primarily on early to contemporary Texas artists, although it also includes several works from American masters, decorative art and some donated private collections. “Our vault space was designed for a much, much smaller collection, and when we have large traveling exhibitions at the Museum, we don’t have gallery space to display our permanent collection for the public,” Ms. Tomio added. “These are wonderful works, and we would like to be able to offer them for viewing on a continuous rotating basis, so people could see something new each time they visited the TMA, but at this point, that’s impossible.” Both Ms. Summers and Ms. Tomio emphasized that these needs, along with the support of the community and donors would be the decisive factors in whether the Museum would expand or build a new facility. The Tyler Junior College Board of Directors voted at their last meeting to approve tentative plans for expansion if the TMA chose to do so on its present site on the TJC campus. The Tyler Museum of Art building was built with funds raised by the Junior League of Tyler, on land leased to the Museum by Tyler Junior College. The Junior League donated the building to the Museum, but with lease terms stipulated by TJC. The Museum must get approval from Tyler Junior College before making any substantive changes to the facility. Ms. Tomio emphasized that the Museum appreciates the TJC Board’s approval, but specific plans for expansion or building have yet to be decided by the TMA Board of Directors. |