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Review content:
Although I don't mean to be curmudgeonly, this building is simply an abomination. This building is to house North Carolina's art collection - some truly beautiful and priceless works, an impressive collection to say the least - and it comes across as a budget building. It was, apparently, sufficient to 'expand' the museum by building a pre-fab warehouse with plexiglas ovals in the ceiling. The natural light in the building is cast at very odd angles and shapes, creating uneven lighting throughout, casting shapes and shadows across paintings, leaving many in the dark. This building was (in plans & renderings), and is (in implementation), an embarrassment to this state, a failure for the collection it contains. It is, in totality, a stark and soulless building, that demonstrates even more poignantly than the old building, that this state does not take art as something in which it is willing to invest. It is an afterthought. After visiting and spending a couple of hours looking around, I see all the familiar paintings and sculptures, but feel depressed with every one. They will be trapped in this architectural embarrassment for a long, long time. We have all been sentenced to live with this abomination until someone decides that an investment in actual museum architecture, in heavy building materials, good lighting, interesting environments, gardens, windows, etc., is both worthwhile and necessary for housing a treasured collection. Housing it in a bargain-basement container like this is a clear indication of the value that the community places on that collection. It's a tattoo of shame we as a community and a state are going to have to live with for many years to come, showing how we as a state place less emphasis on this part of our culture than almost any other state or city in the nation. That's our message, loud and clear, and that will continue to be our message until this building is torn down (or converted to self-storage units), and an actual art museum is built. The one positive comment I can offer, and offer sincerely, is that this building is so stark, soulless and from most angles purely ugly, that it is one of the few constructions that could, by contrast, force one to appreciate and enjoy the old building as a masterpiece by contrast.
Cons: New Building
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