Art Farm Red Barn Gallery

A juxtaposition of the vernacular, place-bound physicality; an abstraction of the “white cube”.

  • Type Cultural
  • Location Marquette, Nebraska
  • Status Design Development completed
  • Date 2003-2018
  • Project Partners

    Art Farm Nebraska:
    Ed Dadey, Founding Director
    Janet Williams

FACT 04

A transformation of barn and gallery – a subversion of expectations – produces novel circumstances for experiencing art. The Red Barn Gallery is the public entry point for Art Farm, a non-profit artist-in-residence program situated on a forty-acre working farm in Marquette, Nebraska. The building juxtaposes vernacular, place-bound physicality with the “white cube” gallery typology. Transformations of both barn and gallery types subvert expectations and produce novel circumstances for experiencing art. The Red Barn Gallery resists but doesn’t eliminate neutrality of the white cube. The flat white walls give way to inflected surfaces that bend to accommodate, structure and deflect light. Filtered light enters from the polycarbonate-over-spaced-board roof and is further diffused with a horizontal, retractable solar shade scrim. The east wall of the central gallery is eliminated in favor of an aluminum and glass garage door that opens to the native grasses of the restored Art Prairie.

Version two updated by Actual Architecture Co. (featured), version one designed with FACT.

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The White Cube in the Red Barn.

We designed the project to take advantage of the levitated state experienced while moving the original barn. The raised barn is transparent at its base so light can enter perimeter galleries at grade and reflect upwards off the light-gray concrete slab. This directly contrasts the light quality of the central white cube gallery where filtered and controllable natural light enters from above. The levitated barn is thus open to its surroundings, maintaining a direct connection between all interior gallery spaces and the surrounding native grass prairie.

Recognition

2006 ACSA Faculty Design Award, Honorable Mention (version 1)

2004 AIA Nebraska Honor Award for Unbuilt Work (version 1)

Project Team

students (version one):
Benjamin Brabec, Reid Brawner, John Cameron, Michael Davis, Brad Jungman, Gabrielle Kroll, John Lindahl, Joshua Lytle, Nathan Owens, William Price III, Corby Renard, Kurtis Schaaf, Jeffrey Scott

interns (version one):
Evan Gunn

interns (version two): 
Erik Leahy, Tara Meador, Nick Pajerski

collaborators:
Min | Day staff

Photography By Model photography by Larry Gawel
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