The space we know as the Gallery for Small Sculpture today previously served as a lecture hall and then, from 1962 until 1992, as the museum’s Art Reference Library. In April 1992, the library was moved from the hemicycle to Clifton Hall so that the space could be transformed into its current state.
The special exhibition currently on view in the Gallery for Small Sculpture—B. Ingrid Olson: Forehead and Brain—is, in part, inspired by the architecture and history of this space. Olson conceived of the installation based on her initial impression of the rounded wall, which she equated to a mental, perceptual space. To her, it felt like the interior of a forehead, with the cases serving as cognitive recesses—segments of the brain.
Hear more about how Olson was inspired by this space tonight, May 17, 2018, at 6:30 pm, in Voices in Contemporary Art: B. Ingrid Olson in Conversation with Holly E. Hughes.