Located right across the street from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, the Burchfield Penney
Art Center, locals say, is the first new museum to be built in the city in more than 100 years. It cost $33 million, provides 84,000 square feet of space, and is comely to boot. Last November, just before it opened, The Buffalo News crowed in an editorial (here):
Buffalo’s museum district gains another jewel soon…the new Burchfield Penney Art Center is a welcome addition to this region’s cultural life and visitor attractions. It’s a spectacular achievement, and the opening in tough economic times of such a stellar showcase for the work of Western New York artists is a bright
testament to community vitality….The Burchfield Penney’s 18,000 square feet of galleries and 5,000 square feet of education and program spaces expand the cultural offerings of the museum district in a wonderfully local way.
I agree, especially about the local part. The Center specifically bills itself as “The Museum for
Western New York Artists,” which means it’s an opportunity to see something different. In its coverage (here and here), The News quoted the enthusiasm of local artists, too:
Watercolor painter Tom Baldwin of Clarence Center said the museum offers opportunities
for artists like himself. “I’m excited about the possibility of being able to exhibit here some day. It feels like a big-city art museum, it doesn’t feel like a little place for local artists,” Baldwin said.
He’s right about the feel. When I was there last week, the Burchfield Penney offered several exhibitions. They include a gallery of Charles Burchfield’s works — along with a recreation of his studio — plus a big sculpture show (at right). I could have been in Chelsea.
20,000 Crickets, an installation by Tom Kostusiak and Associates, was particularly fun. Since 2001, Kostusiak and others have recorded the sound and images of late summer and early fall (the moon, trees, crickets, etc.) in Western New York. They used multiple channels to display video and play back the sound in a darkened gallery, outfitted with trees, branches, stumps, leaves, giving a cricket’s view of the environment. The moon shifts, the images change, the crickets grow louder or softer and appear or disappear — and the loop repeats itself.
The reaction of gallery-goers was interest, intrigue and joy. Some sat on the stumps or stood in the dark for 15 minutes, maybe more. And time passed, just as it does for crickets.
The Center, which is affiliated with Buffalo State University, says that 30,000 people visited during its first week — versus 20,000 to 25,000 a year in its old space, which was on the third floor of a university building. Maybe not a fair comparison, but an indication — I hope — of the vibrancy of a new art center.
Photo Credit: Biff Henrich, Courtesy Burchfield Penney Art Center (top).