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Beautifully Restored Public Spaces

First stage of Renaissance ROM opens December 26, 2005

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is pleased to announce the opening of five restored public spaces in the initial stage of Renaissance ROM, the Museum’s ambitious expansion and restoration project. From Monday, December 26, 2005, the public can explore ten new galleries and five enhanced public spaces in the Museum’s historic buildings. These public spaces include the restored Rotunda; the renovated, and newly named, Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre and Lower Rotunda; the elegant Samuel Hall/Currelly Gallery; and the expanded Learning Centre.

Rotunda:

Long considered one of Toronto’s finest architectural spaces, the ROM’s historic Rotunda has undergone numerous enhancements to restore it to its original 1933 splendour. The Rotunda’s heavy glass doors have been replaced by original oak doors and through them, the Rotunda will serve as an impressive ceremonial entrance, on special occasions. The magnificent stained glass windows above the entrance have been delicately restored by specialists Vitreous Glassworks while the golden hues of the Rotunda’s majestic dome ceiling are now better seen in the room’s enhanced lighting.

Formerly the Museum’s main entrance, the Rotunda is now a relaxed place for visitors. With seating generously donated by Teknion Corporation, The Rotunda Café is scheduled to open here as early as summer 2006. Four carved oak benches, originally commissioned by Dr. Charles Trick Currelly (the first Director of the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology) have been refurbished and installed against the pillars of the Rotunda. The floor’s original inlaid animal motifs have been revealed and renewed. Stellar objects, representing the Museum’s renowned collections of world cultures and natural history, are exhibited in the niches of the Rotunda’s walls. Once again, the Rotunda has become a beautiful anteroom to the galleries beyond, including the new Gallery of Canada: First Peoples which is located in the Hilary and Galen Weston Wing on Queen’s Park.

In recognition of a very generous donation to Renaissance ROM from the Samuel Family Foundation and Elizabeth Samuel, the Rotunda is dedicated in memory of Ernest Samuel and in honour of Elizabeth Samuel.

Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre and Lower Rotunda:
The newly named Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre, formerly Theatre ROM, has been the site of countless film festival screenings, live performances, and lectures. Now, numerous technical improvements increase the flexibility of the space for events, including enhanced audio-visual capabilities to the motion picture and digital video projection systems; Dolby surround stereo sound; front projection screen with adjustable screen masking; screen on movable track to accommodate live performance requirements; multi format audio/video playback; audio recording; and hearing assisted headsets. These enhancements, complemented by elegant lighting and a subtle colour palette, ensure that the Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre will continue to serve as an important centre for many ROM public programs with the theatre, stage, as well as the adjacent Lower Rotunda, now fully wheelchair accessible. These will be watched over by the iconic statue of Timothy Eaton now seated grandly in the Lower Rotunda. Unveiled in 1919, the bronze statue was donated by the Eaton family to the ROM in 1999.

The renovation of the Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre and Lower Rotunda has been made possible through a generous gift from the Thor & Nicole Eaton Foundation. In honour of this support, the Theatre has been named after Signy Eaton and her granddaughter, Cléophée.

Samuel Hall/Currelly Gallery
Since the Museum’s 1933 expansion, the majestic Samuel Hall/Currelly Gallery has traditionally served as the visitor’s first impression of the ROM. This majestic open space still serves as a place of orientation, now providing sightlines to the Museum’s entire main floor, with access to the Gallery of Canada: First Peoples to the east and the suite of Far Eastern galleries to the west. Fashioned after a grand 1930’s hotel lobby, this central salon features six large lounge areas. The Gallery’s custom furniture, an in-kind gift courtesy of Nienkämper Furniture, and the six hand-woven carpets, designed by Alan Pourvakil and generously donated by W Studio, ensures a welcoming and comfortable place to begin one’s visit or to meet and relax.

Offering a taste of the ROM’s collections, iconic objects are located around the Gallery’s perimeter, including a Hadrosaur (a former Dinosaur Gallery inhabitant) and the Buddha Vairocana, a perennial favourite of visitors to Samuel Hall/Currelly Gallery.

A prominent new feature of Samuel Hall/Currelly Gallery is an interactive digital exhibition, entitled ROM Museum Builders. Comprising two 14-foot glass surfaces, the wall invites visitors to explore the history of philanthropy at the ROM and the important role and impact that volunteers and philanthropists have had on the Museum’s development, as told in four main sections: Museum Builders; ROM Through the Ages; Collection Highlights; and ROM’s Donors and Leaders.

Balancing this cutting-edge technology in the Gallery are four murals of armoured figures, created in the 1940s by Sylvia Hahn, an artist who worked at the Museum for 38 years. Several figures depicted in one mural’s tournament scene are Ms. Hahn’s colleagues, including Charles Trick Currelly. While two murals have always been on view in the space, two others have been recently uncovered.

The 2005 renovation of Samuel Hall/Currelly Gallery is generously supported by Ernest and Elizabeth Samuel. First named Currelly Gallery to commemorate the 1946 retirement of Charles Trick Currelly, the space was renamed Samuel Hall/Currelly Gallery in 1997 in honour of Ernest and Elizabeth Samuel who generously supported its redevelopment.

Learning Centre:
A new 30,000 square foot Learning Centre, located on the first floor of the Museum’s Curatorial Centre, is the focal point of the ROM’s education services, and features a Library, Learning Labs, and a state-of-the-art Digital Gallery. As one of the largest educators of school age children in Canada, maintaining and improving public education is a key objective of Renaissance ROM.

Seven Learning Labs provide interactive learning experiences through advanced multimedia technology and skilled staff facilitation. Each lab is themed according to its built-in artifact drawers’ contents and, at approximately 700 square feet, accommodates approximately 35 children. To date, four Learning Labs have been named to honour Irving Tissue, Cargill Foods, The Barr Family, and Scott Paper Limited, thanking them for their generous support of Renaissance ROM.

The Digital Gallery, presented by the Ukrainian-Canadian Community with support from Ian Ihnatowycz and Marta Witer and the Government of Ontario - Ministry of Culture Capital Rehabilitation Fund, offers school groups innovative education programs through a combination of digital media and interactive content narrated by ROM curators and educators. Students have a unique opportunity to interact with ROM objects otherwise inaccessible. Through the internet, the Gallery also opens up the ROM’s collections to the world.

The ROM’s Library is open to the public. Containing archives as well as a special collection of rare works, it is considered to be the most comprehensive museum library in Canada, housing 200,000 volumes including a renowned Chinese and Japanese collection. The comfortable Sackler Reading Room features a wide-ranging collection of journals related to art history, natural science, and museum studies.

The Loblaws Entrance, at the building’s south end, currently the Museum’s main entrance, is to be renamed the Loblaws School Entrance upon the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal opening and will facilitate the projected increase in school visits and ensuing flow of children through the Museum.

The Royal Ontario Museum is an agency of the Government of Ontario.

 

 

Issue date:
December 19, 2005

For more information:
Media Relations
Tel.: 416.586.5547
Fax: 416.586.8022
E-mail: media@rom.on.ca

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