'A transformative moment': Memphis Brooks Museum breaks ground Downtown

The concept of “groundbreaking ceremony” seems redundant when applied to a space already essentially occupied by a crater the size of a city block.

But when the ground in question is being "broken" for a $180 million riverfront attraction intended to establish Memphis as a world-class destination for art exhibition and tourism, ceremonial showmanship is as essential to the enterprise as picks, shovels and construction equipment.

Characterized by museum board president Carl Person as "public leaders," some 200 elected officials, city division directors, tourism boosters, business executives, media members, donors and others so-called influencers — including basketball star-turned-art collector Elliot Perry and Memphis-born, New York-based artist Derek Fordjour, whose paintings and sculptures are in the collections of Drake and Beyoncé — gathered Thursday morning at the corner of Front and Union to grab a shovel and dig into the dirt as part of an "official" public groundbreaking to launch the construction of the new Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

An ambitious project anchored in what Mayor Jim Strickland called "the beating heart of Downtown," the new museum is intended to combine a monumental impact with a welcoming vibe.

The museum's riverbluff placement will make it Memphis' new "front porch," several speakers said; meanwhile, such features as a plaza and rooftop garden will be free and open to the public, to make the property what Brooks booster Barbara Hyde called a civic "living room."

“This marks a transformative moment, not only for the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, but for all of Memphis,” said Memphis Brooks Museum of Art executive director Zoe Kahr. “This is a project that will redefine the visual arts in the Mid-South for generations.”

The ceremony occurred an appropriately gestational nine months after construction crews actually began breaking up the ground at the site, first by dismantling the 1967 fire station on Front Street that at one time served as Memphis Fire Department headquarters.

Scheduled to be ready for the public in 2026, the new Brooks — designed by Herzog & de Meuron, a Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss firm with an impressive résumé of major museum work — will stretch along Front from Union to Monroe, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi. This placement makes it essential to what Strickland called Memphis' "Downtown and riverfront revitalization."

The original Brooks, a century-old Beaux-Arts-style building and National Landmark in Overton Park, will remain open until the Downtown Brooks is completed. (The exhibit "Black American Portraits," which collects two centuries' worth of art, is set to open Aug. 17.) The Overton Park museum gets about 90,000 visitors a year; Brooks director of marketing Jeff Rhodin said he expects the new museum to "quadruple" that number.

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A former deputy director at the prestigious Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Kahr — who was hired as museum director eight months ago — said she was lured "to this job and this city by this project."

She said the groundbreaking ceremony, with its elevated view of the river, was a way to generate enthusiasm for the new museum. "It's a reminder of just how special this site is," she said. "It's so unusual to have a site that is naturally so spectacular."

In fact, Thursday's ceremony was evidence that art enthusiasts and tourism boosters are aware that building interest in and awareness of the project is almost as crucial as erecting the museum itself.

"It's to generate excitement among the citizens of Memphis and the Mid-South," said Person (the business consultant and longtime Downtown booster was something of an artwork himself, in his Gucci bee insignia tie and checked Gucci suit). "This is a momentous point in time, for a city museum to be on the bluff, at the front door of our city, for all citizens to enjoy."

A festive event notable for a heavy presence of seersucker suits, telephoto lenses and thudding bass notes from passing automobiles, the groundbreaking ceremony was centered beneath a tent erected at Front and Union, where guests noshed on jalapeno cheddar focaccia and balsamic tomato galette provided by the Brooks café. (Also: muffins.) After the speech, a few dozens of them grabbed a shovel from one of six buckets placed at the edge of the tent, to pose for pictures and stab the dusty bare earth on the south side of a large crater-like excavation — spaces soon to be covered by the new museum.

“Today’s groundbreaking is one more sign of the strong growth and private investments in our city,” Strickland said. “Memphis’ new art museum is a civic asset that will become the front porch for our city and a magnet for tourism.”

The scope of that investment was reinforced Thursday when Barbara Hyde announced that the Hyde Family Foundation, which she operates with her husband, AutoZone founder J.R. "Pitt" Hyde, had contributed $20 million to the museum fund. So far, $135 million of the $180 milllion "project goal" has been raised.

According to designers and museum officials, the new Brooks will feature nearly 50 percent more gallery space than its predecessor, along with what a press release describes as "600 percent more art-filled public spaces." These spaces include a 10,000-square-foot "community courtyard" said to be "the size of two full NBA courts"; and a rooftop with an expansive green-space that function as "an art park in the sky," complete with event pavilion. The courtyard and the rooftop will be open to the public without museum admission, in keeping with a plan to make the museum an open and welcoming rather than imposing or "institutional" type space.

Local firm archimania is the "architect of record" on the project, with Grinder Taber Grinder as the general contractor.

The Brooks project is another sign that the city continues to see the riverfront and Downtown in general as a key to tourism and economic growth. Set to open to the public in September, the redesigned Tom Lee Park recently hosted several Memphis in May International Festival events, while the renovated Cossitt Library — the new Brooks' Front Street neighbor — reopened in April. And two weeks ago, the National Civil Rights Museum announced "transformative" plans to expand and renovate its Legacy Building and adjacent park on Main Street.

Kahr said the exhibits at the new Brooks will be as welcoming as the architecture and landscaping. She said the museum is committed to showcasing artists from diverse backgrounds, as well as regional artists. "We are Memphis' art museum. It’s important we reflect what our city is."

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Brooks Museum breaks ground for new Downtown location