For years, DePaul students have enjoyed the small, yet adequate art museum space adjacent to the John T. Richardson Library on the Lincoln Park campus.Some of us may not have noticed, but the exhibition galleries were closed in Dec. 2010 and the staff is now packing the collections and preparing for major changes, among them moving to a new home, which will provide a great deal of room for expansion.

Now under construction, the building located on DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus alongside the Fullerton El Station at 935 W. Fullerton Ave., will feature spacious exhibition galleries, a state-of-the-art facility for the storage and preservation of the university’s art collection, and an art study room.

Louise Lincoln, the director of the DePaul University Museum, attributed the move to, “a combination of things-the rapid growth of collections and programs, Fr. Holtschneider’s support, and a more visible commitment to the arts.”

This addition to the art department of DePaul comes as part of the Vision 2012 improvements to the University.

“The museum offers different opportunities for faculty and student research and learning, and thus contributes to the [overall] academic quality,” said Lincoln.

Student worker James Hull is eagerly anticipating the coming improvements. “Currently, the museum occupies two galleries opposite each other in the corridor leading to the library and a second story storage space. The galleries are often missed by students. In order for the DePaul museum to function at its fullest capacity, it needs much more space than it was originally delegated,” he said.

“While lots could be done in the galleries themselves, the exhibition room is only one tiny part of a museum experience that includes conservation, education, among other necessary facets of the museum experience. As I understand it, the new museum will have a space for lectures, a space for classes to take place and a larger storage area. Altogether, the museum will be more conducive to learning and welcoming to students – essential components that were absent from the old space.”

Anyone interested in tracking the construction progress from day one can log on to constructioncams.depaul.edu/gallerylive.php.

Available online are options to view an expedited version of the entire project, what has occurred in the past 24 hours, or a current, live feed of the future art museum.

Also available to view on the website is a PDF version of the museum’s floor plans, so students can take a look at what to expect upon the opening in Sept. 2011.

“You might want to note a couple of features,” says Lincoln, “the big window on the front is intended to make the building ‘transparent;’ the window on the 2nd floor west wall does the same thing for the El platform–commuters will be able to see in, [viewing] information and images on big-screen monitors.”

“The 2nd floor has a multipurpose room, where we can have films, lectures, receptions, etc. We don’t have that now and we have to do parties in the corridor, and events on folding chairs in the galleries, which means no one can walk around and see the exhibition,” Lincoln said.

With the extra space, the museum will be able to hold more events, such as film screenings and concerts.

Lincoln added, “we also have a teaching space on the 3rd floor, where we can have a class of 30 to look at art up close. We don’t have space to do that now.”

The new art museum will offer more ample and secure storage for the collections that are not on display with the state of the art preservation facility that will be built.

“Museums try to preserve their collections for the long term, and that requires first a secure facility with many precautions against loss or theft, a stable environment (i.e. steady temperature and relative humidity) so that objects don’t expand and contract, and for most objects, little exposure to light,” said Lincoln.

“Preserving the collection benefits students and other museum visitors in the future who might otherwise not get to see those objects. We have a storage area in Richardson library, but the space is too small to hold the collection and the environmental controls are not as good as the new building will be.”

The first exhibition in the new museum will open on Sept. 16, 2011, and extend until Feb. 2012.

The innovative and ambitious exhibition, titled Chicago Needs More Famous Artists, focuses on the span of art history in Chicago, roughly 150 years, from around 1860 to the present, and includes examples by more than 50 artists.

According to the museums website, the project in the broadest sense, probes the role of place in artists’ work and thought.

“Drawing on wide-ranging conversations with many members of the Chicago arts community, the project organizers have designed an exhibition and have planned a scholarly catalogue and accompanying programs that celebrate Chicago’s artistic heritage and take an honest and serious approach to an issue that has vexed the city’s art world for decades,” said Laura Fatemi, the assistant director at the DePaul museum.

The exhibition’s title, Chicago Needs More Famous Artists, comes from a landmark exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Shown by renowned Chicago artist and curator Don Baum in 1969, it was provocatively titled, Don Baum Sez ‘Chicago Needs Famous Artists.’

“In the view of many, his satirical comment still holds true,” says Fatemi. “Playing off that comment 40 years later, the proposed exhibition will ask two essential questions: Why are there so few ‘famous’ artists in Chicago? And how are artists’ reputations formed and maintained, here and elsewhere?”

Fatemi stated that the proposed project has set out to rethink Chicago’s heritage by inviting members of the Chicago arts community (critics, collectors, journalists, and museum specialists) to name a Chicago artist who is famous, ought to be famous, or is no longer famous, and to contribute a brief commentary on the artist and his or her work.

The resulting list is in effect, “crowd-sourced” from the arts community and carries some surprises of inclusion and omission. The multiplicity of viewpoints alludes to a sense of the city’s artistic heritage and presences which are more complex and more authentic than conventionally imagined.

One work from each nominated artist will be shown alongside the nominator’s text.

Visitors to the gallery will be encouraged to join in the commentary by blogging through laptops available in the new space.

“The scholarly catalogue will be framed around the shifting relation of the city to the external art world, engaging questions of reputation and canon formation in broad and specific terms,” said Fatemi.

“Together, all aspects of the proposed project will address interlocking issues of place, reputation, and fame, and will shed light on how the reception of works of art evolves over time.