Reinstallation project, 1984-1998, undated

At the time of its completion in 1995, the museum's reinstallation project was its most ambitious to date. With the goal to enhance the visitor's experience of the museum's exceptional collection of European art, the project called for gallery construction and renovation, object conservation and reinstallation, and the development of new interpretive materials, such as gallery and object labels, acoustiguides and brochures. The project encompassed 95 galleries situated on 55,000 square feet of exhibition space and thousands of objects that included painting, sculpture, decorative arts and architectural elements dating from 1100 to 1900. These records, processed respectively in two sub-subseries, document the approximately three and a half years of planning and four years of implementation of those plans, which were carried out and celebrated in three phases; namely, Phase I Medieval and Early Renaissance Galleries (reopened in fall 1993), Phase II Annenberg Galleries of European art from 1850 to 1900 (spring 1994), and Phase III European art from 1500 to 1850 (fall 1995). Fundraising efforts span the two subseries and are documented primarily in the form of various grant requests. For related documentation of the Landmark Renewal Fund, the campaign under which these grants were submitted, see files of the same name in Series I, subseries 1985-1991 and 1992-1996. The campaign, which was conducted from 1986 to 1993, raised more than $60 million for this and other improvement projects carried out at the same time.