Why has the Museum expanded?

Since the 1928 opening of the Museum's Neoclassical "temple on Fairmount," the collections and public visitation have seen dramatic growth while the institution's footprint remained the same. The world-class collections have long outgrown the available space in which to show them. The Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building is part of a larger expansion of the Museum in the coming decade.

What part does it play in the Museum's overall plan for the future?

The Perelman Building is a major feature of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the twenty-first century. It is the first dramatic step forward for the Museum's expansion, which will continue with added galleries in the main building, especially for American, Asian, and contemporary art. The new space provided by the Perelman Building better enables the Museum to reconsider the use of the Fairmount building. As the Museum responds to the full scope of its potential for collections and visitors, it is also constructing a landscaped parking garage on the west side, off Kelly Drive, and undertaking improvements to the main building.

The Perelman Building plays a vital role in Philadelphia's artistic life, a beautiful new place where some of the Museum's largest, most comprehensive collections are presented, stimulating a broad public audience consisting of visitors from the region, across the country, and abroad, and offering special interest attractions for working artists, designers, scholars, critics, and college students. Just as the building offers a cool, clean, contemporary elegance while preserving its exuberant original Art Deco features, the artistic program is also both classic and cutting edge.