Story Archives of 'Currier Museum of Art'

An estimated 4,000 people turned up for the re-opening of the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester on Sunday. After a 21-month renovation that cost 21.4 million dollars, the museum can now exhibit 50 percent more of its collection.

The Currier is one of dozens of museums being built or renovated across the country, many by "star architects," like Daniel Liebeskind in Denver, Zaha Hadid in Cincinatti and artist Maya Lin in New York's SoHo. Critics say these costly expansions are unecessary or even irresponsible, that mediocre collections are being housed in flashy new buildings. Some museums are cutting programs and firing employees, while they're, as one naysayer put it, "hell-bent on creating new spaces for wealthy donor parties." But the Currier staff say they wanted to increase access and programming space for the New Hampshire community at large.

Word of Mouth's Virginia Precott took a tour of the museum with Scott Aquilina, a project manager of the Boston-based firm of Ann Beha Architects, which has been working since 1994 to open the Currier up to new audiences, and provide space for educational programs and new exhibitions.

Visit the Currier Museum of Art's website

(Photo by lunita)

We talk with Sharon Matt Atkins with the Currier Museum of Art about the new exhibit Voces y Visiones. It features Latin American and Caribbean art and the artistic intersection of those cultures.

We'll also look at report by the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute that examines the radical ways life in rural America has changed as farming has given way to manufacturing.

The early watercolors of Andrew Wyeth are front and center this fall and early winter at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester. The Currier has enjoyed a longtime association with Wyeth; it mounted Wyeth's first museum exhibition ever, in 1939. Host John Walters talks about the 87-year-old artist and his relationship with the Currier during the past 65 years with Museum Director and show Curator Susan Strickler.

For decades, the City of Manchester has been home to several well-endowed institutions for the visual arts, ranging from The Currier Gallery of Art, to the century-old New Hampshire Institute of Art. But in recent years ? some say it seems like overnight ? Manchester has also become home to an exploding population of contemporary artists and craftsmen, who are attracted by low-rents and a highly supportive community. The growth of this community is challenging the city to define arts and culture in a much broader way. NHPR?S Doug MacPherson reports.

A new exhibit of 19th century American paintings opened this weekend at The Currier Gallery of Art in Manchester. They�re from the personal collection of Henry Melville Fuller, who died last summer at the age of 87. The paintings were part of Fuller�s final gift to the museum. As NHPR�s Doug MacPherson reports, Henry Fuller was no ordinary benefactor.