MIDDLEBURY — This summer, those looking for art won’t find it at the Middlebury College Museum of Art.
The museum’s sprinkler and plumbing system is undergoing significant repair work, which began in May and will continue until August, said Douglas Perkins, operations manager for the museum.
The museum, which is housed in the Mahaney Center for the Arts, will reopen Sept. 4, and the main exhibit for the fall, “China Modern,” will go up Sept. 13.
The administration made the decision to close the museum for the summer relatively recently, said Perkins, when it became apparent that the plumbing in the building, dating to the building’s construction in 1992, was in worse shape than expected.
“To be safe, we had to make sure we got it done,” said Perkins.
Still, said Perkins, there’s plenty of artwork to see on campus outside of the museum. The main area of the Center for the Arts will remain open, hosting museum and student works on display throughout the building as well as regularly scheduled language school performances and events throughout the summer.
And the museum offers a campus art walking tour, available as a spiral-bound guide at the Center for the Arts or online in PDF format. The museum’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/middartmuseum) also hosts a video tour of campus art.
In the meantime, said Perkins, the museum staff will spend the summer preparing for upcoming exhibits.
“There’s never really a downtime, and this gives us a chance to catch up on some of the other projects.”
This fall, visitors can expect to see “China Modern: Designing Popular Culture 1910-1970,” which will examine comics, fashion and other popular art of the period. That exhibit will open Sept. 13.
Also on display will be “Camera Work: Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand and Company,” featuring works from the early 20th-century photographic journal. It opens Sept. 4.
For more information on the college’s public art, head to www.middlebury.edu/arts/campus.
Reporter Andrea Suozzo is at [email protected]