The $7.5 million renovation of Ball State's Fine Arts Building has expanded the museum from 17,185 square feet to 25,735 square feet, including 5,230 square feet of additional exhibition space. The museum now occupies the entire third floor of the building.

The expansion allows the museum to display twice as many works at one time, showing more of its permanent collection of 11,000 objects valued at more than $40 million. The museum also has gained more room for researching, framing, crating and storing works.

Other features of the renovation include new museum offices and a sophisticated air handling and control system to protect the art collection. A new two-story north entrance facing Riverside Avenue provides better access for the public and individuals with disabilities.

"With the completion of the renovation, we'll be able to provide a more suitable gallery space for showcasing our collection and better serving our audience," said Nancy Huth, the museum's assistant director and curator of education.

Two new galleries house exhibitions featuring furniture and decorative arts and works on paper.

The museum's collection includes examples of furniture and decorative arts from the modern period and earlier, Huth said. And while some people might not see furniture as fine art, many museums include such pieces.

"If you are collecting objects that show what constitutes the height of aesthetic expression, you want to include furniture and decorative arts," Huth said. "A chair isn't a painting, but as an example of a design at a particular time, it's important."

The second new gallery showcases the museum's collection of works on paper with rotating exhibitions. With the new gallery, the museum can display a part of its collection that is unfamiliar to many patrons.

"This new gallery will allow us to highlight our excellent collection of works on paper," Huth said. "We didn't have a good space for it before."

Prints by Rembrandt and Whistler will inaugurate the gallery this fall. The museum's collection also includes botanical, Japanese, early modern and contemporary prints as well as photographs. Prints include works by Picasso and Degas.

Other galleries in the museum feature European and American art, ancient and Asian works, and special exhibitions. The museum also contains a sculpture court and the David T. Owsley Ethnographic Gallery. The Francis F. Brown Collection Study Room currently features drawings from the Renaissance on.

The Fine Arts Building renovation was completed by Indianapolis-based Turner Construction Co. and overseen by project architects Browning, Day, Mullins and Dierdorf of Indianapolis.

For more information on the Ball State Museum of Art, visit www.bsu.edu/artmuseum online or call (765) 285-5242.

(Note to Editors: For more information on this story, contact Nancy Huth or Alain Joyaux at (765) 285-5242 or e-mail nhuth@bsu.edu or ajoyaux@bsu.edu.)