Spencer Museum to host community celebration of new collection galleries March 4

LAWRENCE — The Spencer Museum of Art invites the public to explore its recently renovated and reinstalled collection galleries at Level Up!, An Art Party for All, from noon to 5 p.m. March 4. This free community celebration will highlight the Spencer Museum’s upstairs collection galleries, which have been updated to increase accessibility and put more diverse artwork on display.

Works from the Spencer’s 48,000-object collection, which spans time periods, geography, cultures and mediums, are presented in four distinct but interrelated thematic exhibitions: Intersections, Empowerment, Displacement and Illumination.

“The reimagining of our fourth floor has created new and captivating spaces for gathering, learning and connecting with art and with each other,” said Saralyn Reece Hardy, Spencer Museum director. “We are eager to engage people with our vision for the museum and collection, which is grounded in weaving more nuanced and expansive narratives of art, cultures and peoples, and in reflecting a much broader range of voices.”

The $4 million renovation also included the creation of the new 1,150-square-foot Ingrid & J.K. Lee Study Center, a multipurpose space for class and research visits as well as temporary installations and public programs that increase opportunities to share artwork from the collection.

Visitors can experience the Lee Study Center as well as the new collection galleries on March 4 through a variety of activities. The event will include gallery talks by local artists Lisa Grossman and Hong Chun Zhang, poetry readings by Anthony Boynton and Tai Amri Spann-Ryan and musical performances by Alex Kimball Williams and Tweesna Rose Mills. Spencer Museum staff will lead up-close interactions with artwork as well as art-making activities, and free refreshments will be available.

Free parking is available in lot 91 behind the Spencer Museum and on Mississippi Street.

The Spencer Museum’s Phase II renovation, reinstallation and reopening celebration are supported by Friends of the Art Museum, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts and the city of Lawrence.

Photo: The “Displacement” exhibition is one of four new installations in the Spencer Museum’s upstairs collection galleries.