May 11, 1999		Third Phase in College's Allen Memorial Art Museum Restoration Takes Place This Summer Media Contact: Marci Janas
	Museum will reopen Friday, August 27		OBERLIN, OHIO--The third phase of the restoration of Oberlin College's Allen Memorial Art Museum will occur this summer. The Museum will be closed from Tuesday, June 1, through Friday, August 27, to continue restoration work that began in 1997, according to Sharon F. Patton, the John G. W. Cowles director of the Museum. Museum staff and administrative offices will be relocated, and the collection itself will be stored and secured within the Museum during the construction, which will consist primarily of exterior work. The College's Frank Lloyd Wright House tours will continue as normally scheduled during the summer. Tour tickets will be available for purchase at Uncommon Objects, located in the New Union Center for the Arts (phone: 440-775-2086). This summer's work schedule includes the restoration of exterior masonry, including the removal and replacement of the bluestone and red sandstone at the base of the building; replacement of windows; installation of solar shades for the King Sculpture Court and Goblet Room windows; refinishing existing exterior surfaces--including the rafter tails and doors--and interior finishes (patching and painting existing walls and the ceiling). During the first phase of the restoration project, the terra-cotta tile roof of the Cass Gilbert building was replaced, and insulation above the galleries was installed, as was a new ventilating system in the attic space to ensure more appropriate temperature and humidity control. During phase two, in the summer of 1998, projects included insulating and replacing certain portions of the roof and walls in the King Sculpture Court and Ripin Print Gallery in the Cass Gilbert building; installing new clerestory windows above the Sculpture Court, and securing joints of the facade of the Robert Venturi addition. The Allen Memorial Art Museum was designed by Cass Gilbert and completed in 1917. It features an addition, designed by Robert Venturi and built in 1977, that includes the Ellen Johnson Gallery, a space dedicated to works of contemporary art. Oberlin's Museum is considered one of the finest college or university museums in the nation. Seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish painting, European art of the late 19th and 20th centuries, and contemporary art are especially well-represented among the more than 11,000 objects spanning the range of art history. Other notable collections include Japanese woodblock prints and Islamic carpets from Mary A. Ainsworth and Charles Martin Hall, respectively, and a comprehensive group of Old Master prints, including fine holdings of Rembrandt and Dürer. For more information, please call Leslie Miller, assistant to the director, at 440/775-8670.