- The Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art is adding 3,600 square feet of new exhibition space and renovating half its galleries, expected to open by fall 2026.
- The first exhibit in the new space will showcase The Florida Art Collection, the largest single donation to UF, featuring about 1,200 Florida-themed artworks.
- The museum's 1,000-square-foot Bishop Study Center is also being updated to encourage closer analysis of the collection by UF students and professors.
Renovations on half the galleries at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art are well underway as the museum adds 3,600 square feet of new exhibition space and updates its Bishop Study Center.
Crews from the University of Florida’s (UF) Planning, Design and Construction team, DLR Group and Scorpio Construction started transforming administrative spaces into galleries last month. The new spaces are expected to open in late summer or early fall this year.
Tami Wroath, director of marketing and public relations for the Harn, told Mainstreet the museum will operate with regular hours and events, such as Art After Dark, throughout the renovation.
Wroath could not give a total cost of the project but said it’s made possible by Paul and Rebecca Nagy, a private foundation and other sponsors within the Gainesville community.
The first exhibition in the new space will display works from The Florida Art Collection, the largest single art collection ever donated to UF.
Wroath said the Harn is excited about how the fresh layout will allow visitors to be greeted with art as soon as they enter the museum.
“We have about 3,500 art objects in our collection and less than 30% are on view at one moment in time,” she said. “We’re super happy to be pulling up art that’s in storage right now [and] rotate more art for people to see.”
Wroath said the idea for more gallery space has been in the works since 2020, when the museum received The Florida Art Collection donation from Samuel and Roberta Vickers.
According to a press release from the Harn, the collection is considered one of the most extensive assortments of Florida-themed art, featuring around 1,200 oil and water-painted wildlife, coastlines and historic landmarks in St. Augustine.
Pieces of the collection have been loaned across the state and country to museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Wroath said the Harn’s 1,000-square-foot Bishop Study Center is also getting renovated. The updated space aims to invite UF students and professors to analyze and engage with the Harn’s collection.
“We can pull out more art from storage, and they can look at it closely and talk about it,” she said.
Exhibitions currently on display at the Harn are Japanese Abstraction, Metamorphosis: Reshaping Contemporary Art, Everyday to the Extraordinary: Highlights from the Korean Collection, Highlights from the Asian Collection and Ceramics: Avenues of Exchange.
Next door to the Harn, the Florida Museum of Natural History is also under renovation. The museum is building a 6,000-square-foot, two-story addition expected to open this fall.