Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe begins $75 million expansion

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Wednesday broke ground for a $75 million expansion of the facility.

KRQE-TV attended the ceremony:

The project will double exhibit space and add classrooms, a lecture hall, and conservation labs, while boosting visitor capacity to roughly 215,000 a year. Rooted in Northern New Mexico design, it will feature locally sourced adobe and skylights inspired by O’Keeffe’s art.

“It will help us tell our story of Georgia O’Keeffe and share her art with more people and with our community by having more capacity,” said Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Chief of Staff Micaela Hester “We’ll have more space for school visits. We would love to have every child before they graduate to have had an experience at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.”

The museum aims to have the expansion finished by 2028.

Here is a video of the report:

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is situated a few blocks north of downtown Santa Fe, where the original alignment of Route 66 passes. It’s a common side trip, especially among art lovers.

O’Keeffe, a Wisconsin native, gained international fame after she relocated to New Mexico and created her iconic paintings of flowers and desert landscapes. She spent more than 50 years in the Land of Enchantment, dying there in 1987 at age 98. The museum opened 10 years later.

(Image of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, by osseous via Flickr)