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New rooms of treasure at Phoenix Art Museum

Walking through the expansive, relocated entrance to the Phoenix Art Museum, one can't help but feel expectant. Glass walls, water and the use of Brazilian stone combine to convey a sense of welcome to a city's house of treasures.

Mark J. Pendleton, president of Kitchell Contractors, was on hand during the sneak preview held in late October for the media. Kitchell carried out the architectural designs of Tod Williams and Billie Tsen, who are renowned worldwide for their work.

Pendleton said the additions were challenging, particularly when it came to coordinating imported materials.

"The Brazilians don't care about deadline," Pendleton recalled, adding the entrance's wall of dark stone was pre-cut by the South American artisans, then shipped to Phoenix for reassembly. "But they are tremendous craftspeople."

Across from the hall where receptions are often held is the new space. The 25,000-square-foot Ellen & Howard C. Katz Wing for Modern Art imparts a soaring feeling, like stretching one's arms upward to include as much art as possible. The wing's recent debut hints of more interesting exhibitions to come, as the Museum will use it to show more of its modern, contemporary and Latin American art works. In fact, Museum Director James Ballinger has stated he will soon be naming a Latin American Art curator. Now visitors can enjoy pieces from the Museum's post-war collection on all four levels. When you visit, take five minutes to watch Miguel Angel Rios' A Morir ('Til Death), a spectacular video installation.

Other exhibit spaces include:

. The Kelly Ellman Fashion Design Gallery, which is currently showing After Dark: 100 Years of the Evening Dress, a delicious show of gala gowns taken from the Museum's extensive textile collection.

. The Doris and John Norton Gallery, showing the beautiful black-and-white Modern By Nature: Ansel Adams in the 1930s, the result of a new partnership with the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson. Norton and Adams Now we won't have to drive out of town to enjoy the center's images.

. Brilliant Abstraction: Orme Lewis Gifts in the new Orme Lewis Gallery presents a 40-piece array of works given to the Museum by the late patron (more than 1,000 pieces comprise the collection).

. The Hendler Gallery for contemporary art and the Marshall Gallery, which will host two annual shows of work by emerging and under-recognized living American artists.

It may take a little time, but the re-landscaped courtyard garden will soon grow into a public space where visitors can spend time reflecting on the visual riches just on the other side of the wall.