How the Buffalo AKG’s Expansion Is Supporting a Burgeoning Art Scene in Western New York

Over three years after closing its doors to embark on a remarkable redesign and expansion, the Buffalo AKG Museum has reopened. Formerly the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Buffalo AKG is the sixth-oldest art museum in the United States and one of the first with a dedicated contemporary art program. The renovated campus was designed by OMA, with its partner Shohei Shigematsu in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, and marks the culmination of an impressive $230 million capital campaign. The Buffalo AKG now boasts over 50,000 square feet of exhibition space, more than half an acre of public green area, and new studio classrooms.

The expanded campus will allow the Buffalo AKG to show more of its vast collection, which the museum recently announced grew by a remarkable 518 works while renovations were underway. The acquisitions reflect a broad range of media, including digital and video art, and work from leading figures in contemporary art, such as Simone Leigh, Arthur Jafa, Jeffrey Gibson, Tiffany Chung, and Nick Cave.

“To date, we have only been able to show a small fraction of the long arc of our collection,” said Janne Sirén, the museum’s Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director. “Now, visitors will be able to explore diverse art histories. No one, including the staff of the museum, has ever had the opportunity to see so many works from the Buffalo AKG’s collection on view at the same time.” The inaugural exhibitions include solo presentations from Clyfford Still, Lap-See Lam, and Lucas Samaras, as well as group shows of photography and a selection of work from the museum’s permanent collection.

The renovations were undertaken with the local community in mind. While creating the redesign to update the existing Neoclassical and modernist architecture and expand the campus, the Buffalo AKG hosted town hall meetings with museum staff, Shigematsu, and the local community. The redesign is intentionally more open and welcoming to the public, breaking down the traditional white cube model associated with art institutions.

Stunning glass walls surround the new Gundlach Building, giving outside viewers a glimpse of the galleries inside. Those who enter the campus from the parking garage will experience an immersive, site-specific woven tapestry by Miriam Bäckström entitled Others Will Know (2023). An existing open-air interior courtyard is now covered by Common Sky (2022), a kaleidoscopic canopy of glass and mirror triangles by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann, that provides shelter from the snowy weather the city experiences each year. The courtyard is free to visit, as is the adjacent Seymour H. Knox Building that houses classrooms, an auditorium, gallery spaces, and the museum’s new Cornelia restaurant, which features a site-specific, 30-foot-long glass mosaic mural commissioned from Firelei Báez.

“As a nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to the community of Western New York, the Buffalo AKG aspires to flourish as an exceptional hub of artistic and creative energies that enriches and transforms people’s lives,” said Sirén. “Buffalo has a growing and dynamic local art scene, and as part of our work as a museum we hope to inspire collectors and gallerists to support the work of living artists.”

Local galleries, artists, and collectors are taking note. Interspersed throughout the city are nearly 50 public art projects, including murals, residencies, and sculptures that are stewarded by the museum’s public art department, a project initiated in 2013. Several works take visitors through downtown and the robust local art scene in the Allentown district, which is home to K Art, a Native American–owned gallery that focuses primarily on Indigenous artists. Founded in 2020 just as the museum was closing, K Art has already benefited from the increased interest in the arts in the area.

“There is so much buzz around the reopening,” said K Art owner Dave Kimelberg (Seneca Nation). “The AKG team is very involved with the local arts community, far more than other museums. Buffalo is a small community, and the arts community is even smaller. The museum is constantly encouraging people to visit our galleries and art centers, and is involving us at various steps along the way.”

The Buffalo AKG invited local arts leaders to attend hardhat tours and solicited feedback on how it could support the community. The museum has also included local galleries in its robust acquisition program over the last three years. K Art, for example, placed several works by G. Peter Jemison (Seneca Nation). “We are thrilled,” said Kimelberg. “Buffalo is the kind of place where everyone wants to support each other and see others succeed. Camaraderie and collaboration are at the core of the arts community here. I really believe the museum expansion will be a ‘rising tide lifts all boats’ scenario and a catalyst for the arts in Buffalo and Western New York.”

Reflecting this community ethos, the Buffalo arts sector has created a gallery guide and is working with the museum to plan events, including a celebration at the Buffalo AKG during The Armory Show in September to draw visitors from New York City and give local audiences a cultural program of their own. For this series of events, called pARTy, tickets will be offered at inclusive price points to attract a broader audience, in particular the large community of art students in the area.

Joining Kimelberg and the Buffalo AKG in planning pARTy are additional local arts leaders, including Rivalry Projects, an artist-run commercial gallery and arts production and residency space also in Allentown. Embracing the history of the neighborhood as an artist-focused, diverse community with a strong LGBTQ+ presence, Rivalry supports a range of emerging, mid-career, and underrepresented artists, including Jacob Todd Broussard, Hannah Secord Wade, Tammie Rubin, and Nando Alvarez-Perez.

While under renovation, Buffalo AKG toured groups of collectors and board members through local galleries like Rivalry and held events in their spaces to maintain engagement and support the community. The museum also hosted an event in Miami during Art Basel in Miami Beach last December, bringing together those from Buffalo who flew down for the fairs and introducing the city to the fairgoing audience.