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Unveiling the Perelman

A special section about the expansion of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Video: Grand digs for art to get the treatment

The costume and textile lab of the Philadelphia Museum of Art arrived at its new home in the Perelman building. Watch as Sara Reiter, head conservator of the costume and textile department, gives a tour of the new facility and all its exciting new toys.

(At left, Bernice Morris working on a suit of German armor, lined with leather and textiles, made about 1630. Photo by Michael Bryant / Inquirer staff photographer.)

Looking toward growth: The Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building as seen from the roof of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The 173,000-square-foot expansion represents the museum's only sug gestion in decades that its art is not necessarily tied to a building. With impending projects totaling $590 million and counting, the museum is gambling that there's a wider audience to be had.
Art comes down to earth
The expansion represents that the Art Museum is ready to spread out, to be accessible and available, to become part of a city neighborhood.
To many, for a very long time the Philadelphia Museum of Art has been an institutional manifestation of everything its classical architecture was meant to convey. August. Stalwart. Serious. Sitting a bit aloof on Fairmount above the rest of the city, the museum has always required you to make the first approach.
 
Special section: Unveiling the Perelman
 
Slide Show: Preparation for the Opening
 
Timeline for the expansion
Architect Gluckman, by his torqued wall in the Skylit Galleria between the old building and the new galleries: A classic instance of Gluckman sculpting air.
An architect who designs so the art can shine
By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
Hardly a month goes by, it seems, without some city, somewhere in the world, breathlessly proclaiming that it has just commissioned a superstar architect to design an eye-popping museum building that will surely be a work of art and could well rival the Guggenheim Bilbao in its daring form.
 
Slide show: Working with good bones
Dilys Blum, the curator of the Costume and Textiles department of the museum, makes final adjustments on the first exhibit of the new Joan Spain Gallery. The exhibit, titled "A Passion for Perfection," focuses on the best clothing designs from the 1950s through '80s by a variety of designers. Ralph Rucci's "Four Sided" gown and wrap stands in the foreground.
Out of the closet - at last
The galleries, along with a spanking-new study room and a high-tech apparel conservation center, can help establish Philadelphia as a fashion destination beyond the realm of retail.
By Elizabeth Wellington, Inquirer Fashion Writer
The Philadelphia Museum of Art's costume and textiles collection - more than 30,000 pieces of clothing, accessories and fabrics - is impressive, ranking right up there with those housed in New York and Los Angeles art museums. But with only 400 square feet of gallery space, its curators have never had enough room to show it off.
 
Video: The new costume gallery
 
Slide show: Dressing for an opening
Stieglitz portraits of Georgia O'Keeffe await hanging.
Art Review
Five opening shows of riches
Now visitors can at last appreciate the depth and range of several specialized collections, including photography, design, sculpture, and costume and textiles.
By Edward J. Sozanski, Inquirer Contributing Art Critic
For the public, the new galleries and expanded library are the heart of the Art Museum's Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building. Now visitors can at last appreciate the depth and range of several specialized collections, including photography, design, sculpture, and costume and textiles.
 
Highlights of the five opening exhibitions
 
Slide show: Making a space into an art gallery
Raymond and Ruth Perelman stand in the entryway to their namesake building's Exhibition Gallery. The couple's gifts - such as the $15 million they gave the Art Museum in 1999 toward the purchase of the building - are made in both names. Likewise, they bought their myriad pieces of art by mutual consent. "There's very little they don't agree upon," their son Ron says.
Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman: 'A fabulous duo,' giving back
By Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer
The dapper man in blue blazer and cordovan shoes gazes around the sun-dappled gallery as workers fit together a Crayola-colored Sol LeWitt sculpture. "This looks larger than when it was under construction," Raymond Perelman says, pleased by all he surveys, as well he should be.
The Skylit Galleria, seen from the patio of the Perelman. The new building, left, by architect Richard Gluckman, seems to intrude into the older building's back wall. The new edifice breaks through the glass wall joining the two buildings.
Architecture Review
An art palace well suited to Philadelphia
The Perelman addition, meant to relieve the pressure on the museum’s overstuffed main building, takes modesty and restraint to a level rarely seen in major art venues.
By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
In the Art Museum's new Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, Philadelphia has at last acquired a modern civic building that is a true Philadelphian.
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