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Whitney Museum of American Art, 2010 image by Gryffindor, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License, obtained through Wikipedia.

NYC’s Whitney Museum to build downtown museum

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson

Whitney Museum of American Art, 2010 image by Gryffindor, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License, obtained through Wikipedia.
Whitney Museum of American Art, 2010 image by Gryffindor, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License, obtained through Wikipedia.
NEW YORK (AP) – The Whitney Museum of American Art will break ground on a new museum in downtown Manhattan in 2011.

The museum’s board Tuesday night unanimously approved the construction of the Renzo Piano-designed building at the entrance to the High Line promenade. It said the six-story, asymmetrical, metal-clad museum will provide “essential new space” for the Whitney’s holdings.

The museum’s current Madison Avenue location can display only 150 works at a time from its 18,000-piece permanent collection.

The museum has raised $372 million of the $680 million project. It’s expected to be completed in 2015.

The board also agreed to continue discussions with the Metropolitan Museum of Art about the potential use of the uptown museum.

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Online: www.whitney.org

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AP-ES-05-26-10 1153EDT