The new design for the existing museum takes advantage of the timeless but unusual circular gallery plan and soaring ceiling while updating some of the older, dated finishes. Tall banners occupy the vertical space and are extended out from the walls, implying the spectacle of the Greatest Show but also both the drama and grandeur of curtain swags at an Opera House.

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Inspired by the colors, fonts and graphic imagery of 1930’s dramatic movie and spectacular event posters, the museum’s visual landscape is characterized by a sweeping gradient of color: purple, blue, green and yellow. The existing cases are lined up one after another around the perimeter of the gallery, and the interpretive graphics in the back of each case recall a lineup of posters spread one-after-another on the walls of a theater lobby. Each case and section of her life is like a dramatic sequel to the prior period. The use of color is feminine, exciting and evocative.

 

Opened July 2020