Visitors rave about Burchfield Penney Art Center as opening celebration continues
The city’s newest hot spot: An arts center
Accolades for the Burchfield Penney Art Center continued to roll in as the public got its first look Saturday at the new, $33 million museum.
Free admission was part of a 31-hour celebration that includes music, poetry, dance, film and lectures — many staged in the state-of-the-art, 156-seat theater. The celebration ends at 5 p.m. today, but free admission continues to Nov. 30.
“The museum completely, I think, surpasses anyone’s imagination or expectation,” said Jade Chen after touring the 84,000-square-foot showplace. “It truly is an awesome, awesome example of how great Buffalo is as a city.”
The curious came and saw — and in impressive numbers.
At 9:30 a. m. Saturday, when the museum opened, there was a line of people waiting to get in, said museum spokeswoman Kathleen Heyworth, who estimated Friday’s members preview crowd at 6,000, and probably exceeding that volume by late Saturday, with more to arrive during the 31-hour marathon.
The museum features the curved, 147-foot-long East Gallery, with the centerpiece, Russell Drisch’s “Gateway,” depicting a natural pergola, transporting observers into another environment. There is a 28-foot ceiling above a maple floor, with full windows to the north and south conduits for a flood of natural light.
“This is the ultimate affirmation of what Buffalo is becoming,” said Mark Donnelly, a photographer who signed copies of his new book, “The Fine Art of Capturing Buffalo.” “You can’t ask for a much stronger statement about the positive things happening here.”
Mayor Byron W. Brown was among the visitors getting a first look at the new home for Western New York artists.
“The new museum is absolutely phenomenal,” Brown said. “It is a breathtaking experience walking through.”
Famed social documentarian Milton Rogovin, whose work, “Appalachia Revisited,” is on exhibit in the Corridor Gallery, also visited the museum Saturday. Rogovin, who turns 99 next month, was led into the museum in a wheelchair by family members, including son Mark.
He quickly glanced at the 26 black-and-white prints of miners he photographed between 1962 and 1971, before being surrounded by a crowd of admirers.
Asked about the new museum, Rogovin said, “Very nice — wonderful. Makes me cry.”
Visitors were treated to tours by Ted Pietrzak, the museum’s director, and Nancy Weekly, head of collections. Pietrzak said during a break that the opening was the culmination of his 30-year career.
“What really hit me was watching people looking at the art, looking at the spaces. I saw them pointing, and they were going in different directions, trying to convey what they were experiencing, and they were doing what art does,” Pietrzak said.
William J. Magavern II said he was “overwhelmed” by the museum’s opening. Magavern first proposed the idea of a new museum 10 years ago to the president of Buffalo State College, where the museum is located, and initiated it with a $1 million pledge.
“It does prove that you can honor your architectural heritage and still move forward. This is a brilliant result,” Magavern said.
Eva Hassett, a member of the museum’s board of trustees, said what makes the Burchfield Penney so unique are the local artists who exhibit their works.
“Usually you go to a museum, and you don’t know the people or you know who they are because you read about them in a book, and they don’t live here,” Hassett said. “The art on the walls are by people we know, and who live with us. It just blows my mind.”
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.
Ann Curthoys and her daughter Laura surveyed the main gallery from inside a 12- foot high, glassed-in, cantilevered deck on the second floor.
“It’s a fabulous space to look at art,” Ann Curthoys said. “It’s a great space for huge artwork; [there’s] a great variety of art, and I like that they are focusing on artists who lived or worked in Buffalo.”
Not everyone, however, cared about that.
Two-year-old Leigh Lefevre and 5-year-old Dagny Re bhan were among the children who pounced on Roberley Bell’s hands-on (and knees, too) exhibit, “Flower Blobs Bloom” in the educational play space called the “Useum.”
“It’s really great. She’s been having a good time climbing around on the art,” said Leigh’s mother, Becky, who drove in from Batavia. “It’s nice to have art you can interact with and touch.”
In talking about the space, Tom Rebhan and daughter Dagny had the following exchange:
“What was different about that room than all the other rooms of the museum?
“You could touch everything,” Dagny replied.
“What does Daddy usually say when you go to museums?”
“Don’t even touch anything!” replied Dagny, as if hearing it a million times.
Rebhan said he appreciated something being at the museum for children.
“It makes it something that the whole family can come to,” he said. “It also gets the kids involved and appreciating art at an early age, which I think will follow them through, all along.”
