{"id":632575,"date":"2026-10-16T16:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632575\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T16:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:28:10","slug":"longmont-museum-reopens-after-10m-renovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632575\/","title":{"rendered":"Longmont Museum reopens after $10M renovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

After more than a year of gallery closures, members of the public can see every part of the new and improved Longmont Museum.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the museum will celebrate the grand reopening of its galleries, which have been closed for construction since July 2025<\/a>. The massive renovation project was supported by a $10.2 million capital campaign<\/a>. The Stewart Family Foundation donated over $6 million to the expansion project. Bill and Lila Jean Stewart also have their name attached to the museum\u2019s Stewart Auditorium, which opened in 2015.\n<\/p>\n

From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, people can visit the museum at 400 Quail Road to check out the new exhibitions for free. Guests can step inside the completed feature and children\u2019s galleries as well as the in-progress history gallery.<\/p>\n

The Bill Stewart Feature Gallery holds \u201cFrida Kahlo: An Intimate Portrait,\u201d an exhibition showcasing letters of correspondence between the iconic Mexican artist and other individuals. The exhibit also features roughly 100 photographs taken by and of Kahlo, including some taken by her father.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were photographs that she had and touched,\u201d said Jackie Hobbins, senior manager of exhibitions for the Longmont Museum. \u201cSo it\u2019s a pretty exciting show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the new feature gallery is nearly twice the size of the old one, the museum can fit multiple shows in the room at the same time. Temporary walls for the art allow staff to configure the space however they want, Hobbins explained.<\/p>\n

Standing alongside the Kahlo exhibition in the Bill Stewart Feature Gallery is \u201cWomen Artists: Four Centuries of Creativity,\u201d which displays original artwork by female artists throughout history. Featured artists include French painter Rosa Bonheur and Pablo Picasso\u2019s former partner Fran\u00e7oise Gilot.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt like these shows complemented each other really well,\u201d Hobbins said. \u201cObviously, the Frida show is a lot more detailed about her life, specifically, which is just so fascinating. But this kind of shows the breadth of women who have similar stories to share.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA dragon sculpture is seen above the Dragon Sky Castle exhibit in the new permanent, hands-on children\u2019s exhibit area, DreamLab, at the Longmont Museum on Tuesday. People can see DreamLab for free on Saturday during the museum\u2019s grand reopening celebration. (Matthew Jonas\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n

DreamLab, the children\u2019s exhibit, fills every corner of the gallery with hands-on activities for kids. Visitors can walk into a mushroom house or climb a towering castle guarded by a dragon. Lila\u2019s Children\u2019s Gallery is a permanent, dedicated space for kids that replaced the \u201cFront Range Rising\u201d history exhibition.<\/p>\n

The galleries weren\u2019t all that received attention during construction. The first phase of the expansion project revamped the museum\u2019s outdoor courtyard in 2024<\/a>. The building\u2019s front entrance also has a gift shop with products that tie into current exhibits, including books about Kahlo and dragon plush toys.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrida Kahlo: An Intimate Portrait\u201d will be up through Jan. 31. After that, the feature gallery will accommodate an exhibit displaying bird-themed quilts.<\/p>\n

Joan Harrold, who runs marketing and communications for the Longmont Museum, shared that the new gallery spaces total 9,110 square feet. Harrold said the museum wanted to reopen its galleries with an exhibit that showed off the building\u2019s \u201cdynamic programming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrida Kahlo is a big name,\u201d Harrold said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice for the Longmont Museum to be able to bring this kind of scale of exhibition to the community, and to help the community understand that the museum isn\u2019t just a small local history museum. We have internationally significant shows here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Longmont Museum\u2019s new Bill Stewart Feature Gallery is seen on Oct. 8. (Dana Cadey\/Staff writer)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After more than a year of gallery closures, members of the public can see every part of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,12247,2112,29143,501,156,12248,2113,256,132639,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-632575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-boulder-county","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-news","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-front-range","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-longmont","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}