Blanton Museum opens this weekend

Austin is about to get a new museum… sort of. But you probably already know that since downtown Austin is overflowing with billboards, posters and just about every other conceivable kind of advertising announcing the opening of the “new” Blanton Museum of Art.

The Grand Opening is not until this weekend, but Lost in Austin blogger Fletch got an early look at an advance opening for UT students and he has published an in-depth review. Overall, he likes the space quite a bit, but isn’t crazy about the work on display. Here’s a clip…

Most importantly, the space is amazing. And a lot larger than I had anticipated. The central atrium is gorgeous in an Italian-villa-meets-21st-century- construction-materials-in-Texas sort of way. You could see what they were going for, and that’s what counted. There are two large galleries on the first floor (along with the gift kiosk where you can buy all of your artsy museum souvenirs that have nothing to do with the Blanton), and then something like 21 galleries upstairs, including 2 massive halls (where someone said that they were going to hold yoga classes).

You can read the rest of Fletch’s review here.