When Magazzino opened in June 2017, “not exactly a museum, or a gallery,” with 18,000 square feet of exhibition space dedicated exclusively to showcasing and uplifting postwar and contemporary Italian art, it was, well…unprecedented, to say the least. Here, on the side Route 9, outside the quaint upstate village of Cold Spring, in a one-time agricultural storehouse turned computer factory turned art warehouse, a world-class collection of avant garde Italian art was to be housed. I’d venture to say that, at the time, it was an elite few in the Hudson Valley who were even familiar with the Arte Povera movement.
But with free admission, public events and film screenings, a 5,000-volume library, adorable Sardinian donkeys, and seemingly bottomless pockets, Magazzino slowly changed that. Now, names like Costantino Nivola, Jannis Kounellis, and Giuolio Paolini have entered the local art lexicon, and they’re here to stay.
As is the institution of Magazzino itself, which just announced the expansion of its campus, breaking ground on the Robert Olnick Pavilion. Tucked into the hillside adjacent to the main building, the new pavilion is slated to open in 2023 and will add 13,000 square feet of space to the Italian art campus, including a room devoted to decorative arts, ceramics, and jewelry. There will also be a multipurpose room that can serve as an auditorium for screenings, lectures, and other events, as well as a cafe/gift shop.
The multilevel pavilion has been designed in the style of the main building, echoing its rectilinear form and cast concrete façade. The careful placement of windows and skylights is intended to prompt a thoughtful interaction between art and environment—both built and natural. The design is a first-time collaboration between Spanish architects Alberto Campo Baeza and Miguel Quismondo, who also worked on the main Magazzino structure, transforming the original L-shaped building into a rectangle with a central courtyard.
The additional gallery spaces will allow Magazzino to mount temporary exhibitions in addition to the permanent installations in their main building, while the auditorium will provide a space for programming even in the colder months, which Magazinno’s main building has lacked. “We are thrilled to expand our facility and to welcome even more visitors, boosting our programming and consolidating our activities year-round in Cold Spring,” says Magazzino director Vittorio Calabrese.
The 2023 debut of the Robert Olnick Pavilion, so named for Magazzino co-founder Nancy Olnick’s art collector father, will also coincide with the launch of a new initiative. “One of the most exciting aspects of the expansion is the opening of our Department of Education—hosted in our multi-purpose room,” Calabrese says. “We are making an important investment in the town of Cold Spring, a community that welcomed us so warmly over five years ago, as well as investing in our audience and visitors throughout the Tristate region.”
Magazzino is open 11am-5pm on weekends.
[location-1]
Related Stories
This article appears in January 2022.
