Art collector Michael Audain reveals expansion plans for Whistler Art Museum in Canada

VANCOUVER.- At a news conference held today, art collector Michael Audain revealed that he has significantly revised his originally announced intention to build a 27,000 square foot art museum surrounded by a spruce forest in Whistler, British Columbia – for a bolder 56,000 square foot structure. The new plan will be presented to Whistler Council this week.

“We realized that we would outgrow the smaller version within a decade and concluded that to expand the structure in the future would be so expensive that it just would not make sense,” explained Audain, Chairman of the Audain Art Museum. “We wanted to do it right from the outset, so we went back to the drawing board and revised the plan. The museum’s exhibition galleries will now exceed 20,000 square feet, over half the area of those in the Vancouver Art Gallery. The expansion will allow us to host larger temporary exhibitions from the world’s great museums.”

Audain Art Museum 2013

In October 2012, the Resort Municipality of Whistler announced it would lease the land for 199 years. Audain pledged to stock the museum with works from his art collection and, at the news conference today, confirmed that his family foundation will provide the funding to design and construct the museum which is expected to be $30 million.

“With the reworked design, the Audain Art Museum will still be discreet and embedded in the forest,” says John Patkau, principal of Patkau Architects. “Adding the additional space won’t change the overall zen-like feel of the museum.”

The museum came about because Audain wanted to find a natural treed site to house a large portion of the personal art collection that he and his wife Yoshiko Karasawa have amassed over the past 50 years.

If the plan is approved, the four-season resort will have B.C.’s largest purpose-built art museum. “We will be honoured to have a world-class art collection on permanent display adding another great attraction for visitors, and contributing to our growing cultural tourism experience,” says Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden.

The Resort Municipality of Whistler is governed by an elected council and administered by an executive team and staff on behalf of 10,000 residents and two million annual visitors.

Once the new plan is approved by the Municipality, Audain anticipates construction will start this summer with completion expected in early 2015.

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