Museum's Gallery Space In Lakeland To Triple In Size Following Renovation Project

LAKELAND, FL — The Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College will implement plans for a $6 million expansion and renovation project of the Museum, a news release said.

Changes at the Museum include creating numerous spaces for exhibitions and new educational experiences for the community and students.

"With this exciting expansion, our whole community will benefit," H. Alexander Rich, chief curator at the Museum, said. "The new spaces will showcase art from across time and cultures, and the Museum can continue to grow as an innovative site for learning for its entire art-loving community.

The expansion, scheduled to begin in 2023, will include:

• A $6,000,000 expansion upon the Polk Museum of Art’s 34-year-old primary building, adding over 10,000 square feet of gallery, classroom, and art laboratory space to the current 38,000 square foot building.
• Renovations to the existing 1988 structure, including to the Museum’s current entrance, along with new flooring throughout the first level and updated second floor galleries, classrooms, and office spaces.
• New galleries, tripling the Museum's current major exhibition spaces, enabling the Museum to display more of its permanent collection and to expand its collections storage. Currently, only a small fraction of the Museum’s 2,800 pieces of art are able to be displayed at any time.
• New, innovative, multi-use gallery, education, and archival spaces in which to study, learn from, and appreciate art across time and cultures., special events spaces, classrooms, and additional storage and restoration areas.
• Continued partnership between the Museum and Florida Southern College in their trajectory toward becoming home to one of the nation’s leading academic fine art museums and scholarly centers for the study of the arts and visual culture. The expansion will provide additional hands-on experiences for students, including internships, volunteer opportunities, and pre-professional development programs.

"This expansion sets the stage for the Museum’s status as a world-class academic museum, a community institution that serves students and our citizens," Lynda L. BuckChair, board of trustees member at Polk Museum of Art at Florida College, said.

For more information, click here.