ISGM Exhibitions: The Making of the Museum

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	Design & Construction of the Museum
Section through Court and Tapestry Room Looking toward Rear Willard T. Sears, Architect American, 1837-1920 Blueprint, ca. 1914	In 1896, Mrs. Gardner hired the architect Willard T. Sears (1837-1920) to draw up plans for a museum. She first wanted to rebuild her home on Beacon Street as a gallery. However, the need for more space led her to buy a new plot of land along the Muddy River in the Back Bay fens, which provided about twice the area of her house, along with plenty of light and air. Willard Sears, together with his partner Charles Cummings, designed many buildings in Boston and New England, including the Cyclorama (1884), now the Boston Center for the Arts in the South End, and the New Old South Church (1875) in Copley Square. Sears designed Fenway Court using many suggestions from Isabella. He worked for her again in 1914-15, when she restructured the east side of the building, tearing down the Music Room, and creating the Spanish Cloister and the Tapestry Room. Sears also was responsible for the Carriage House in back of the museum in 1907. In September 1896, Sears wrote: Met Mrs. John L. Gardner on the train going to Ruth Simpkin's wedding and she asked me to see if there were any restrictions on her Beacon Street house lots, and asked me to make plans for her showing a Museum with living apartments over. She wanted me to keep the matter from everybody. In December 1898: Called on Mrs. J. L. Gardner at 2 p.m. with the drawings for the Museum at 152 Beacon Street, and she informed me that she had purchased a lot of land 100 ft. by 150 ft. on the Back Bay Park to build the Museum upon - That she wanted me to make new drawings, & to include a small theatre with the Museum.	Construction of Gardner Museum Velox print, ca. 1900 Showing one of the stylobate lions being moved into place at the north entrance to the courtyard.

Construction of Gardner Museum Velox print, ca. 1900 Mrs. Gardner on a ladder on the second or third floor		Construction of Gardner Museum Velox print, ca. 1900 Architect Willard T. Sears in the courtyard

October 31, 2001-January 1, 2002

Last fall, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presented a new series of works by British artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, who use grass as a photographic medium. Ackroyd and Harvey's "photographs" cast in grass are created through a photosynthetic print process. Instead of black and white, the images are shades of green and yellow. Their exhibition, entitled Presence and organized by Gardner Museum Contemporary Curator Pieranna Cavalchini, was part of an artist-in-residence program that enables artists to study the Gardner's preeminent collection and visitors to experience the work of emerging talent and ideas.