Westmoreland Museum Initiates Grand Plan

From the Post-GazetteNOW:

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art launched a planning initiative last week to support an ambitious strategic plan to increase museum outreach and physical space, develop the collection and capitalize upon its reputation as a prominent repository of American art.

The effort comes in the midst of the Greensburg museum's 50th anniversary year and specifies an increase in gallery, program and support space by 2012.

The goal, said museum director/CEO Judith O'Toole, is "to create a meaningful, dynamic, world-class campus" with "a new addition that moves the museum into the 21st century."

A seven-session design charrette on Thursday brought together 63 funders, community partners, officials from other institutions, volunteers, residents/neighbors and artist/educators.

It was facilitated by Frederick Bonci, founding principal of the Pittsburgh-based landscape architecture firm LaQuatra Bonci Associates. Bonci plans to report on the charrette during an Aug. 12 public meeting at the museum that will elicit further community input.

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