Architecture Serving Art (What A Concept!)

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is 200 years old this year, and it has been a year of great change at the venerable Philadelphia institution. Bigger isn’t always better, of course, but thr Academy’s considerable expansion seems to have increased its artistic viability as well. “The museum benefits enormously from the addition of six large gallery spaces, with more to come in a few years. The new galleries not only enable the museum to display considerably more of its permanent collection; they have also produced an unexpected dividend. This is a more agreeable marriage between art and architecture, especially in the institution’s historic building.”