With the Williamsburg Art Gallery’s lease ending Sept. 1, the fate of its Merchants Square gallery space is no longer up in the air.
The Muscarelle Museum of Art leased the 4,277-square-foot location at 440A W. Duke of Gloucester St. for use while its main building remains closed for renovations into 2020, area real estate agency Cushman and Wakefield Thalhimer announced Thursday.
“We’re very happy about that,” said Clyde Berryman, who owns Williamsburg Art Gallery with his wife, Gulay. “The Muscarelle has done so much for Williamsburg in terms of the exhibitions they’ve brought here.”
The new gallery space will be called “Muscarelle on the Move” and will feature new, innovative art exhibits starting in early September, according to museum director Aaron De Groft.
“We are very proud to be able to bring the Muscarelle to Merchants Square,” vice president of real estate at Colonial Williamsburg Jeff Duncan said in a news release. “Their presence adds to a decades-long tradition of our support of the arts in Merchants Square, including Art on the Square each spring and the upcoming An Occasion for the Arts each fall.”
The move will be a boon to college students as well, De Groft said.
The cross pollination of students travelling to Merchants Square for events at the interim Muscarelle location and the Kimball Theatre will foster better relationships between businesses, students and Colonial Williamsburg, De Groft said.
“The juxtaposition by the campus is important,” De Groft said. “We may not have every answer right now, but we are chipping away at the concrete reality of moving to Merchants Square.”
The College of William and Mary’s art museum is in the process of expanding alongside Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall. They will become part of the Martha Wren Briggs Center for the Visual Arts, a new, multi-million dollar facility that’s part of the William and Mary Arts Quarter initiative.
The new Muscarelle Museum of Art is set to reopen as early as the first half of 2021 with nearly three times the exhibition space, De Groft said.
Meanwhile, the Williamsburg Art Gallery is transitioning to an online-only offering.
Clyde Berryman said he and his wife are excited the venue — designed from its inception as an art gallery — will remain focused on art.
“Sentimentally, that’s very important,” Clyde Berryman said. “It stays in the arts.”
