Spencer Museum to host ‘Last Look’ events before closing for renovations

With renovations slated for May, the Spencer Museum of Art is giving guests the chance to take a last look at its galleries with a series of events that will culminate in a closing party April 12.

Over the next two weeks, the museum will host several “Last Look” events, including a performance from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday by Kansas University’s Percussion Group, featuring a piece written by professor Kip Haaheim to complement Sol LeWitt’s “Wall Drawing 519.”

In this architectural rendering, floor-to-ceiling windows in the first phase of renovation at the Spencer Museum of Art would west toward Marvin Grove. Image courtesy of the Spencer Museum of Art and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

“Whether you visit us to study great works of art, find tranquility, or seek inspiration, I invite you to experience the Spencer one last time before our transformation begins,” Spencer director Saralyn Reece Hardy said in a news release.

The first phase of the project, budgeted at $5 million, will entail a complete overhaul of the main lobby and central court. Features will include an elevator and staircase connecting the museum’s two floors of gallery space and a floor-to-ceiling window feature, allowing natural light inside the galleries and connecting the building to KU’s Marvin Grove.

Galleries are tentatively set to reopen in 2016. On April 12, the last day before closing, the museum is partnering with the KU Natural History Museum to host a “Day of Creativity,” with performances, demonstrations and hands-on activities from noon to 3 p.m., followed by a closing party from 3 to 5 p.m.

While the galleries remain closed during renovations, the museum will offer offsite programs and special events throughout the community.

For a compete schedule of events, visit www.spencerart.ku.edu.