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A public art museum can easily lapse into ordinariness. Many
cities have them, and of course, they all contain works of art. Few
of these buildings have enough of an identity that a museum
patron led blindfolded into the galleries would be able to identify
the museum once the blindfold was removed.
To thrive, art museums must be able to host major shows and
secure loans of specific works. Facilities without a strong identity
might seem to lack credibility, and could find it harder to attract the
more prominent works that bring in the crowds.
These were the challenges facing the Toledo Museum of Art in
Toledo, Ohio, which invited Chermayeff & Ge
ismar