As the only American museum exclusively devoted to Italian art, Cold Spring's Magazzino has brought postwar and contemporary Italian culture to the Hudson Valley since its establishment in 2017. On September 14, the museum opened its new Robert Olnick Pavilion to the public, adding 13,000 square feet of exhibition space and capping the process of a substantial—and rapid—expansion.
The new building, which broke ground in 2021, was born out of a growing mission that's developed over the last six years, explains Vittorio Calabrese, Magazzino's executive director. Calabrese has been with the project for eight years, since its initial inception as a private warehouse (magazzino in Italian) for the vast contemporary Italian art collection of its founders, Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu. The new pavilion is "a way for us to expand our programming, have additional places for temporary exhibitions, and [include] programming all year round," Calabrese says.
The building was co-designed by architects Alberto Campo Baeza and Miguel Quismondo, both of whom have longstanding ties to the institution. Baeza designed the modernist Olnick Spanu house in Garrison for Magazzino's founders, a building on which Quismondo was the project manager. Quismondo was also the designer of Magazzino's initial, 20,000 square-foot structure, constructed off a renovated warehouse that was once a dairy distribution center."This is closing the circle in a way," Calabrese says, adding that the Robert Olnick Pavilion has "two exhibition spaces for art, one for design, [and] one multi-purpose room where we can do concerts, conferences, and movie screenings."
Three exhibitions open the new space: one on Italian postmodern artist Mario Schifano ("Mario Schifano: The Rise of the '60s") curated by Alberto Salvadori; a second, also curated by Salvadori, featuring large-scale artworks by Ettore Spalletti ("Ettore Spalletti: Parole di colore"); and a third ("Carlo Scarpa: Timeless Masterpieces") which features a selection of Murano glass designed by Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa during the interwar and early-World War II period.
While the expansion on the museum's existing collection is the centerpiece of the new pavilion, Calabrese also points to the new space's hospitality dimension, which includes both a design store and restaurant.
Cafe Silvia, which the director describes as "a killer combination of Italian food and farm-to-table," is headed by Milanese chef (and current Garrison resident) Luca Galli. The restaurant combines high-quality Italian products and recipes with local Hudson Valley produce, some of which is grown in a small garden right on the museum property. "You don't need to get a ticket [to the museum] to eat at the cafe," Calabrese adds, hoping it'll attract a diversity of visitors "who don't necessarily know about Italian contemporary art—but of course they're big lovers of Italian food and culture."
Over the long run, the new pavilion will also allow Magazzino, which doubles as a nonprofit research center, to expand its educational mission. "Magazzino has never has an actual space dedicated to education, only for research," conducted through scholarships, fellowships, and collaborations with universities, Calabrese says.
By early next year, the museum plans to launch an educational department for both child and adult learning. Calabrese says that making Italian art and the museum's programming more accessible is "pretty much the evolution of what we've been trying to do."
The director expresses a debt to Robert Olnick, father of founder Nancy Olnick and namesake of the new building. "He was a visionary real estate developer and philanthropist with a very critical and sensitive eye," Calabrese says.
A mirror painting by Michelangelo Pistoletto, of Robert Olnick and his wife Sylvia, greets visitors in the lobby of the new building. This tribute, Calabrese says, offers a fitting welcome to the new building. "[Robert Olnick's] legacy and his values are actually translated into the project that we're opening."
Magazzino Italian Art is located at 2700 Route 9 in Cold Spring and is open Thursday through Monday from 11 am to 5 pm.
