Cal State Long Beach’s expanded art museum ready to reopen

Art pieces are being hung in one last gallery as the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum prepares for a soft opening later this week.

A project to more than double the exhibition space and add state-of-the-art supporting functions at the Kleefeld, as some at Cal State Long Beach call it, is nearly complete after 18 months of construction. The work is part of a $24 million renovation that includes upgrades to the Steve and Nini Horn Center and landscaping around the building that includes multiple sculpture installations.

“We’ve suffered from some supply-chain issues, like everyone,” museum spokeswoman Amanda Fruda said, “but we’re opening essentially on time. Some of the smaller things aren’t done yet, but we’re ready for the public.”

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The opening on Saturday, Feb. 12, will include an art talk and walk through with Linda Besemer, whose first retrospective exhibit fills the main gallery. Others featured in the first installation are Torrance artist Hung Viet Nguyen, Rita Letendre, Mark Bradford and Kleefeld.

The renovation of the University Art Museum has essentially created a new museum, adding a new 4,000-square-foot main gallery, creating new, smaller galleries out of the old space and reusing other parts of the footprint to create people-friendly gathering areas in the plaza outside the front door and an airy entry area large enough for small receptions.

While state financing is paying for the Horn Center renovation, the money for the museum construction came from private donations, Fruta said. The lead gift was from artist Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld. Besides adding her name to the museum, there is a separate Kleefeld Gallery, with a barrel ceiling, hardwood flooring and more. The opening exhibit there is a retrospective of Kleefeld’s work.

Airy is a good adjective for the entire museum.

The main gallery’s ceiling is about 25 feet above the floor, with LED track lighting and movable walls to accommodate different exhibitions. A smaller, more intimate gallery still has 20-foot ceilings and the Connie Glenn Court lobby soars to a vaulted skylight. Even the community gallery, in the entry area from the Horn Center, has space for large works of art.

Just outside the doors connecting the museum and the center, a huge abstract tile mosaic by Millard Sheets, donated by Farmers & Merchants Bank from its original Home Savings installation, rises to near the ceiling as well.

“After two years of working to expand and transform our museum, we are overjoyed to welcome communities to experience our arts complex, new exhibitions and more,” museum Director Paul Baker Prindle said in a statement. “Reopening on schedule on Feb. 12 represents the collective efforts of Museum staff, campus design and construction services, volunteers, and a whole network of support.

“We are very excited to advance our focus on visual abstraction, material innovation and arts integration,” he added, “and offer improved access to our collection as an educational resource that is owned by all Californians.”

Another addition with the expansion — storage space for the museum’s collection — will enhance exhibits and research possibilities, Fruda said. One of the pictures in the Letendre exhibit, for example, is part of the permanent collection.

The museum also includes a state-of-the-art education space capable of accommodating visiting classes from the Long Beach Unified School District and elsewhere. A laboratory filled with the museum’s works on paper is available to the public for research on an appointment basis.

An entrance plaza includes outdoor furniture, a natural stage and more, making it both a gathering place and a venue for events. It replaces a wall that had been in front of the museum entrance.

“We want to be welcoming to all the public for multiple uses,” Fruda said. “That was important in the design.

“And we’re the only (art) museum in Long Beach that is free all the time,” she added.

Fruda said that COVID-19 has delayed a large unveiling celebration and limited hours will be in place for the time being.

The Kleefeld will be open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, and by appointment only from noon to 5 p.m. Friday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Every second Saturday there will be a guided sculpture tour. The museum is on the university’s lower campus, near the athletic complex and connected to the Horn Center.

Information: csulb.edu/carolyn-campagna-kleefeld-contemporary-art-museum.

Source: Orange County Register