The Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, FL has big things happening. There are new exhibits for visitors to enjoy and there are some beautiful renovations that have recently been completed. You don't want to miss out on all the excitement.
New and Improved
Pritzker Prize-winning architect, Lord Norman Foster of Foster + Partners, has designed the Norton Museum's new look, and as you'd expect from an architect with such a stellar reputation - the renovations are simply stunning.
One of the most notable changes is a brand-new entrance on South Dixie Highway, the benefits of which regular visitors to the museum are sure to appreciate. This renovation restored the east-west campus axis to the beauty that was created by the original architect, Marian Sims Wyeth, in 1941. It also gave the museum more opportunities to engage with the community.
People can now gather and meet before and after visits at the museum in the shady vegetation adjacent to the 19-foot-high sculpture, Typewriter Eraser, Scale X (1999). This sculpture was brought to life by Claes Oldenburg and his wife, Coosje van Bruggen and it is located in front of the 59,000 square-foot Kenneth C. Griffin Building. Better known as the Heyman Plaza, this area of the museum boasts the Michelle and Joseph Jacobs Reflecting Pool where visitors can enjoy a calming view and a canopy of leaves that float above. The Plaza is now truly the gateway to the museum.
The new expansion of the Norton Museum brought many more exciting features. There is now an additional 12,000 square feet of galleries and new classrooms and a gallery for student art in the William Randolph Hearst Education Center. Visitors can enjoy going to lectures, performances, films, and more in the 210 seat Stiller Family Foundation Auditorium. New community space was created in the Ruth and Carl Shapiro Great Hall and new spaces are available for private functions. After visiting the galleries and exhibits you can sit back and relax in the new restaurant and then discover gifts and souvenirs in the museum store.
Renovations were completed on February 19, 2019, and visitors can now enjoy the many artful additions.
New Exhibits
If all the changes aren't enough to bring you to the Norton Museum, the exhibits will be. There are always new galleries to explore and learn from. Check out two exhibits that visitors to the museum love:
Georgia O'Keefe Living Modern Exhibit – Georgia O'Keefe used her clothing, her art, and the way she presented herself in front of a camera to create a public persona that represented her progressive lifestyle and her independence. Subdued blacks and whites created a theme for her art and the way she dressed with accents that became her signature style of her early years. When she moved to New Mexico that style became more colorful and could be seen in her art and her clothing choices. It was in New Mexico that she came to be known as a style icon and a pioneer of modernism. The exhibit includes her paintings along with pictures taken by photographers Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, and Andy Warhol.
The Body Says, I Am a Fiesta: The Figure in Latin American Art – The title of this exhibit comes from a book called Walking Words that reflects the impressions of Eduardo Galeano, a writer, novelist, and journalist from Uruguay. The gallery of images addresses societal and symbolic implications about the body in Latin American cultures. Some of the artists in the exhibit include Ana Mendieta, Maria Magdelan Campos-Pons, Diego Rivera, and Rufina Tamayo. The artists explore figurative ideas and universal elements of the body. They also give reference to the external forces that act on the body.
A visit to the new Norton Museum is sure to be time well spent.
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