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Nasher Museum Closed May 18-21 for Gallery Renovations

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, including the store and cafe, will be closed May 18-21 for gallery renovations.The Wilson Pavilion will undergo its first major alteration since the museum opened in 2005. Most of the museum, including the Nasher Museum Cafe, will resume normal operations on Friday, May 22; the Nasher Museum Store will reopen May 26. The Wilson Pavilion will be closed, however, for most of the summer.“I want to thank our visitors in advance for their patience as we undergo a renovation that will be loud and disruptive at times,” said Sarah Schroth, Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Director of the Nasher Museum. “We will close during four days of the most intense construction, but visitors will notice work crews throughout most of the summer. We can’t wait to show you our beautiful new galleries this fall.”Opening August 27, the unveiled Wilson Pavilion will feature “The New Galleries: A Collection Come to Light,” a comprehensive and dynamic reinstallation of the museum’s collection in celebration of the Nasher Museum’s first decade. The renovation will more than double the works of art on view. Eight new galleries will be dedicated to specific areas highlighting many of the museum’s masterworks while illustrating a history of human creativity. “The Ancient World” covers a broad geographical and chronological reach, featuring works from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman cultures. “Medieval Europe” displays important architectural sculpture, devotional objects and stained glass from the Romanesque and Gothic periods. “European Art, 1400-1900,” illustrates cultural and aesthetic changes from the Renaissance to the dawn of the modern period through a variety of objects, paintings and sculptures.“American Art, 1800-1945,” begins with portraiture from the early Republic, continues with Hudson River School painting and Ash Can School works, and concludes with examples of Regionalism. “Modern Affinities” features European and American modernist art alongside works by self-taught artists, illustrating connections between them. Two galleries dedicated to non-Western cultures include “Art of the Americas,” presenting ceramics, metalwork and textiles from Mesoamerica, and “African Art,” featuring many of the museum’s best masks, figural sculpture and beadwork from the African continent.The galleries will include a flexible “incubator space” often used for rotating student-curated exhibitions; it will be inaugurated with an installation of Ansel Adams photographs curated by two undergraduate interns.For more information, go to nasher.duke.edu/10.