The Transformer Station will provide additional venue for contemporary art in Northeast Ohio
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Foundation today announced a collaboration that will bring additional exposure for contemporary art to Northeast Ohio and for the first time in its history expand aspects of the museum’s programming and exhibitions to dedicated space outside of its University Circle campus. Titled the Transformer Station, this new arts venue takes root in a former transformer station built in 1924 at 1460 West 29th Street in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. Construction will begin immediately to restore the original building and build an expansion, designed by Process Creative Studios in Ohio City, with a total footprint of nearly 8,000 square feet when completed. The facility may open to the public as early as fourth quarter 2012 with its first programs and exhibitions.
Cleveland Museum Transformer Station
The Transformer Station’s original building is one of sixteen substations built by Cleveland’s one-time private transit provider, the Cleveland Railway Company. This facility converted power for the Detroit Avenue Streetcar Line, which carried 19 million riders annually at its peak. The building was used as a transformer station until 1949, when the City of Cleveland offered it for auction. From the early 1980s until 2010, it housed an art foundry. Its location on West 29th Street will allow for close coordination and collaboration with the exciting developments happening in the Ohio City and Detroit Shoreway neighborhoods, which include the Market District and Gordon Square Arts District.
“The Cleveland Museum of Art’s programs and exhibitions at the Transformer Station will enhance the museum’s reputation as not only one of the top five comprehensive art museums in the United States but also a leader in presenting the art of our time and interfacing with the community in creative, unexpected ways,” said David Franklin, director of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
“The Transformer Station will be an exciting new space for contemporary art in Northeast Ohio. A place for living artists to stage provocative exhibitions and installations in a lively, diverse urban cultural context,” said Laura Ruth Bidwell, co-founder and director of the Bidwell Foundation.