The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts has announced plans for its next round of renovations. It’s the third and final stage of a process that began in controversy six years ago. Founded by paper magnate Zenas Crane in 1903, the museum garnered international criticism when it contracted with Sotheby's to sell off artwork from its collection to fund what it described as critical infrastructure improvements. Despite condemnation from the art world and a series of legal challenges, the eventual 2018 sale saw 22 pieces – including original Norman Rockwell works donated to the museum by the artist himself – deliver a return of over $53 million. WAMC sat down with Chief Curator Jesse Kowalski at the museum Monday morning. Kowalski says the newest vision for the beloved local institution will return it back to its founding mission.
KOWALSKI: It's going to be complete renovation of the first floor. It's really modernizing the first floor, fixing the walls, insulating the walls, changing the windows so that they're up to museum standards. So, modernizing but also keeping kind of the essence of the Berkshire Museum that people here love.
WAMC: Now of course, since the art sale, there's been a lot of conversation about different iterations of what a renovated or new Berkshire Museum would look like. How does this edition of the of the proposed changes sort of fall in line or reflect past conversations?
Yeah, this is, I think, is different from past iterations in several ways. But I think, I guess the best way to put it is that I think it really retains the kind of the spirit of the founder of the Berkshire Museum in creating this kind of window to the world, Smithsonian Museum in the Berkshires. And it allows us to have cases bringing in so many objects from the collection, and just to showcase the art, the science, and the history of the museum.
Now, let's say I walk into the museum post-renovations. What are some of the first things I'm going to notice when this round of improvements and changes goes through?
Well, it'll be a lot a lot cleaner, a lot nicer, I guess, because, you know, the building was built in 1903. So, some of the renovations haven't happened since then. So, it'll be a lot cleaner looking. When you walk into the lobby, it'll be a lot more open, there'll be seating there. The front desk will be modernized. You'll walk into the first gallery, and you'll see what will become our auditorium or theater or lecture hall that'll seat about 75 people. And also in that room, there'll be kind of a history of the Berkshires, with a documentary about the Berkshire Museum and Pittsfield and the Berkshires and the Cranes and the Feigenbaums. And then the next gallery, which is now the gallery called the taxidermy, that'll become the cabinet of curiosities. So, it'll be kind of the founder’s original intent of just having boxes and boxes of objects thematically arranged that people can open and explore on their own. And then the next gallery, it's currently our geology gallery, it'll be a mix of geology and archaeology. So, we'll have some fossils mixed in with the geology. And then the diorama room that everyone loves so much, it's pretty much unchanged. We're going to refinish the surface of the walls and change the lighting within the cases to LED lighting that you can adjust from dawn to dusk or whatever. And, but other than that, the diorama rooms pretty much staying the same. Then what is now the Feigenbaum Hall of Innovation will become kind of a living diorama area with some of the taxidermy, but also two large rooms you can walk in that will provide an immersive experience with a 360-degree video of a different environment, a jungle environment or something, with audio. And then past that there'll be a library, children's reading area. And the gift shop will be expanded somewhat, and then we'll have a small dining area off of there where people can access food or coffee on their own and sit and enjoy that.
It seems like a bit of a zag after the most recent round of changes were sorted to make this this more interactive, technology-based experience in the museum. So, now it seems like the narrative is shifting back to this foundational concept. Can you speak to that strategy?
Yeah, I mean, for me, personally, I think technology takes away a lot of what a museum provides. If you show archaeological objects and have all this technology, then people will be more fascinated with all the gadgets and not focus so much on what you have to exhibit. So, for me, it's more kind of sensory based, I guess, and being familiar with the objects and not so much messing around with computers and things. And I think it really takes away the experience of the museum. So, not so much technologically based. The technology there is more to support the materials, I guess, than to replace any experiences.
So, as far as the vision of the museum and the goal that you want folks to have when they come here- Tell me about how this renovation aligns with that.
Yeah, well, I guess I forgot the most important part is the aquarium, which is in the basement now, which is somewhat confined and a little hard to find, will be moved to where the auditorium is now. So, it'll be about doubled in size. Our designers doing a great job. It's going to be phenomenal. It's going to be really a world-class aquarium with, like I said, double the space. We’ll have many, many new kinds of aquatic life and reptiles. Jellyfish, so when you walk in, there'll be a cylindrical tank full of the jellyfish that float to the top and bottom. So, that'll be really nice. So, when people come in, I think they'll get a sense of what the Berkshire Museum is, and I think it's really, really fixing up to what I think the Berkshire Museum should be, which is a much better representation of the original idea.
Let's go to the numbers here. What is this going to cost? Where's the money coming from? And when is it going to actually take place?
Well, the cost is still up in the air, because they just finished the schematics. And so, we don't have the design done. We don't have the numbers for that yet. But we do have money that was set aside during the sale, that was set aside for the renovation. So that will be used for that. And then, so the timeline is due to begin next August, September. And overall, it’ll take about a year and a half to do everything, because we're going to do it in stages so that we don't have to close the museum.
And I guess, broadly, if you had to sort of communicate a message to the Berkshire community about what these renovations mean for this beloved part of our intellectual and creative infrastructure in the county- How would you describe that message?
You know, when I came here, it's funny, because I came from the Norman Rockwell Museum, where there was a lot of talk about the Rockwell paintings. And I think what a lot of people don't realize is that the building from 1903 was really not in good shape. The floors were sagging, there was water coming in through the walls whenever it would rain, and so it wasn't a safe place to exhibit art. And so, the only way that we could have stayed open was to sell certain artworks. That was really the only cash flow we had available. It was unfortunate, but it was the only way that we would be open to this day. And that money is being used to fix up the museum so that it'll be around for hopefully another 120 years.
