On Wednesday, June 30th, the Autry National Center announced plans to renovate its current museum with new galleries. A new permanent exhibit called "First Californians" will be developed in a 25,000 square foot space to be opened in 2013. The Autry will also exhibit rotating exhibits taken from its collection of Native American collection of art and artifacts acquired from the Southwest Museum.
The Autry recently acquired a 77,000 square foot building on 3.6 acres of land in Burbank (reported in the LA Times, July 2, 2010). The purchase was made via auction in a Los Angeles Bankruptcy Court. The purchase will allow for the storage of over 500,000 artifacts - many items acquired when the financially troubled Southwest Museum, of Mount Washington, was absorbed.
Originally having planned to expand its Griffith Park museum, which would have doubled the size of the existing 142,000 square foot building, the Autry decided instead to remodel the existing museum as well as the the new Burbank property.
The Burbank property will also house offices for curators and conservators - as well as scholar research libraries. The two-story building will have climate controlled spaces designed to store artifacts and library materials not on exhibition.
Chu + Gooding Architects will be asked to design the Burbank's conversion to a museum annex.
For more information on the Autry National Center: Autry
