The Albuquerque Museum Expansion

Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez joined City Councillor Brad Winter for the ribbon cutting at the newly expanded Albuquerque Museum of Art and History on Tuesday, February 1, 2005 at 10:30 a.m.  

Phase I of the expansion of the city's new state-of-the-art Museum includes an 8,000 square foot changing exhibitions gallery, a grand hall and entrance, special events hall, an expanded Sculpture Garden, new Gallery Store and Museum café. This expansion adds 40-thousand square feet to the original building and allows the Museum to present more of its permanent collection than ever before.

The first major exhibition to fill the Museum's new gallery was the impressive El Alma de España - The Soul of Spain on April 17, 2005, kicking off the city's Tricentennial celebration. El Alma is the first of three Spanish exhibitions to be displayed at the Museum.. Prelude to Spanish Modernism: Fortuny to Picasso will fill the gallery August 21- November 27, 2005 followed by Picasso to Plensa: A Century of Art from Spain opening on December 18, 2005.

The 8.3-million dollar expansion was funded by General Obligation Bonds, grants from the State of New Mexico and private funding by the Albuquerque Museum Foundation. Rohde, May, Keller, McNamara Architecture designed the new museum and Bradbury/Stamm was awarded the construction contract.

The Albuquerque Museum is dedicated to art, history and education. Since opening in 1979, the Museum has featured art of the Southwest, 400 years of Albuquerque history, educational classes and has hosted world class traveling exhibitions. This is the first expansion of the Museum.