For the love of art and architecture: CMA offers Hard Hat Tours

The Columbia Museum of Art is inviting the public to a behind-the-scenes look of its gallery-lighting renovation project. 

CMA Director Della Watkins offered guests an up close view of the construction process during a recent Hard Hat Tour. 

“This is the year of lights,” Watkins said. “So, on purpose, we put it this year because this is also our 75th anniversary.” 

The $2.9 million lighting project is supported by Richland County and the city of Columbia.  

The renovations are part of a larger, multi-million capital improvement project that aims to enhance the quality of the museum that has been on Main Street for 25 years. 

The lighting system – the same one from when the museum opened – is being replaced by modern LED lights.  

The new system will provide better visual quality, reduce heat exposure to sensitive materials, and allow curators to adjust settings via Bluetooth. 

“Every piece of art in this museum has a specification about how much light you can put on it,” Watkins said. “The light actually breaks some fibers down.” 

Former museum director Bill Bodine, who attended the tour, said technology is always improving. 

“I couldn’t have imagined this lighting system,” Bodine said during the tour. “And we can’t imagine now what’s going to happen in the next 25 years.” 

Workers also are replacing drywall in the galleries that have endured years of repainting and art hanging.  

“There were 75 layers of paint,” Watkins said. “Over a quarter inch thick of paint.” 

Watkins said the layers were “visually not good and structurally questioned.” 

The heating, ventilation and air conditioning system also is being upgraded, and select galleries will now be able to display suspended artwork weighing up to 1,000 pounds. 

“We want to allow the curators to hang anything they want, anywhere they want, however they want,” Watkins said. 

The museum’s downstairs galleries are set to reopen May 24 and will be organized thematically. The first gallery will commemorate CMA’s 75th anniversary, and the second will feature a Sam Gilliam exhibition. 

Gilliam was a decorated African American painter known for his colorful draped paintings of the 1960s and ’70s. 

“Those works are very important to our collecting history because we got them in 1971 and 1973,” Michael Neumeister, the museum’s senior curator, said during the tour. “Let’s just say we wouldn’t be able to acquire works like that” now. 

In addition to new lighting, the museum also will have a space with rotating exhibitions. 

“It’s going to rotate about every nine months,” Neumeister said. “The first exhibition that we’re going to show here is a suite of works by Jasper Johns.”

Johns, who is 94, is the best-known artist to come from South Carolina. His work, including colorful paintings of targets and the U.S. flag, has fetched some of the world’s highest auction prices. He attended the University of South Carolina before moving to New York City. 

Although the galleries closed in January, the museum remains open for events, including concerts, summer camps and children’s classes. 

Former board member Jane Kulbersh, who participated in the Hard Hat Tour, appreciated the museum’s openness. 

“I liked everything about the tour,” Kulbersh said. “I think it’s really important to realize how detailed it is and how much work it is.” 

Upcoming Hard Hat Tours are scheduled for April 3 and May 14. Guests must register online to attend. 

“It’s our birthday, but it’s your gift,” Watkins said. “The gift is giving (you) an updated museum.”