Carol T. Christ Asian Art Gallery

The 1,250-square-foot gallery provides a dedicated space for SCMA’s evolving collection of Asian art. Inaugural exhibitions focused on contemporary photography, and the space serves as a powerful reminder of the Smith community’s constant movement toward cultural diversity, creativity, and discovering identity.

Special lighting preparations were installed for the display of the 40 foot-long, 9 foot-tall painting by Frank Stella, which previously was unable to be displayed due to the lack of wall space to accommodate such a large painting.

Over 150 individually controlled lights were installed to light up the Carol T Christ Gallery. Modular display walls were sourced from Germany for revolving art work in the lower gallery.

A large set of stairs were removed in order to make room for much larger paintings, photographs, and displays. The stairs weighed over 5000 pounds, which served as a demolition challenge due to the sensitive atmosphere of the gallery. The stairs were cut into many small pieces and removed without creating sparks, or damaging amounts of dust.

The floor is a one of a kind stone and terrazzo matrix polished to an incredibly smooth mirror like finish. This floor is a new step in the world of terrazzo; there are over 50,000 individual stones in the floor, all hand laid and polished over a course of 6 weeks by 4 skilled craftsmen.