The Cincinnati Art Museum is renovating and restoring the Art Academy on the building's west side. The first phase of the $18.4 million project should be complete early next year.Museum Director Aaron Betsky is excited about the new third floor library space.
"(It's) going to be where everyone can gather and learn about art or just have classes or just study. And we'll also have events there and you'll be able to (go) out on the balcony and look out over the city. So that space is really the whole point of the building. It's going to be completely lined with wood so it's going to be a very warm space. It will be where we think people will gather," he says.
The reconstruction includes preserving the Art Academy's exterior. The building dates back to 1887 with walls as thick as up to four and a half feet in places.
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