This is the Week…. at IMA

Here’s a note from Rebecca Parks at Island Museum of Art…

This is the Week things really start happening at the San Juan Islands Museum of Art building at 540 Spring Street. The building, IMA’s first permanent home, has come along way already since its origin as an EMT facility… but this week is when the real excitement begins! With the grand opening scheduled for August 2, this is when the action really begins to show in Friday Harbor.

The volunteers and staff at IMA have waited for many months for this moment, which should offer amazing photo opportunities, as the steel arrives by truck and is erected on huge concrete footings. Next up: glass – great sheets of it to create the dramatic atrium that fronts Spring Street. The steel work should be completed around June 6, then the glass installation will begin June 9, with a complete date of July 18.

In addition to the atrium, the completion of the two-story entry and reception area on the east side of the building promises streetside excitement as well. Planned for the upstairs is an inspiring open space that will offer locals and visiting artists the chance to share their talents with one another in this dramatic island workshop setting.

The first show planned for the new IMA building is Illuminated, the glass art of William Morris. The world-respected Morris studied and teaches with the Pilchuck school and is a longtime colleague of Dale Chihuly.

Architect Richard Hobbs told us Sunday that “with any luck” the steel erection begins Monday, May 19, for the Atrium Gallery. The interior rough framing of the existing builiding is nearly completed, with mechanical and electric work beginning now. As the exterior steel is now on site, “the hidden work in the existing building will start down the finish path,” Hobbs said. “This is the week that from the street, things really start happening!”

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