The Briscoe Museum: A New Use For an Old Building (with some additions

 

 

 

PART 3 - The Briscoe Museum of Western Art

 

The history and evolution of the Library and Circus Museum into the Briscoe Museum of Western Art has been well chronicled.  The building was vacant from the closing of the Circus Museum in 2001 until 2006, when a lease was signed to renovate the structure as a museum of western art.  All the history and politics of this period pertaining to this decision, and the principal persons involved in it (notably Jack Guenther and his wife for its idea, donation of artworks and mustering financial support through involvement of the Briscoe family) have been spelled out in Emily Wilson's introduction in the recently published catalogue, The West Starts Here. A Decade at The Briscoe. The wonderful discussion of what is now the three-part Museum consisting of the now-renovated original library building, the wholly new Jack Guenther Pavilion designed by Lake Flato Architects next door and the McNutt Sculpture Garden next to that designed by the Ten Eyck Landscape Studio is fully discussed and analyzed in an article by Kevin McClellan inThe Architect's Newspaper, published in 2014, shortly after the Museum opened to the public.

As well as the Guenther Pavilion, designed to harmonize with the existing Library/Circus structure, but with contemporary integrity, Lake Flato Architects was also responsible for the renovation of the library and its conversion into a truly functional museum space.  The exterior continued to look as it had always been--edifying inscriptions and all, (though large bronze pieces now flank the main entrance instead of Hertzberg's elephants), with the addition of bridges and passages linking the old building and the new.  This included the demolition of the

Briscoe Museum Lobby

six-story stack area facing the river and redesigning it to accommodate galleries.  With the stacks gutted, the designers were left with three stories of open space.  The solution was to consolidate the mezzanine and the first story where the book stack tower had been and add the third story above it encompassing most of the building space on that floor.  The central space behind the lobby was therefore taller and more open, but by keeping the old mezzanine level with the staircase as a passage, it allowed an entrance there to the second floor of the Guenther pavilion (the Presa Street exit was closed off), and additional exhibition space was added at this level as a continuous balcony surrounding the open center space.  The third floor was divided into five galleries. 

During the restoration, a sealed closet was revealed within the stack space.  It contained several books, including a partial 16th-century King James Bible and later posters.  The reason for its existence is still a mystery.

The ground floor layout remained similar to the original library, with the former children's space converted and redesigned as a gift shop to the right of the lobby entrance, and the old reading 
room to its left divided into an activity space, renamed the Clingman Gallery at the front, a passageway leading to the Guenther Pavilion, and a second special purpose room off the other side of the passage (more on this later).

The only part of the interior that remained intact was the lobby.  "Intact" may be the wrong word here, since what was necessary to recapture its original appearance was to give it a thorough cleaning.  Restoration Associates, who restored the coffered ceiling and buffalo nickel frieze, reported that before work began, the gilt ceiling had become nearly black--tobacco stained--with stress cracks in it from decades of neglect.  The restoration, with workers often on their backs on a high scaffold, took some time, recasting the plaster coffering, and regilding the whole thing--not with metallic leaf this time, but with non-toxic mica-based paint, also used to restore the buffalo nickels.  Original lighting sconces and chandeliers were also cleaned and restored, and the electricity modernized.  What was once cork flooring was replaced by travertine, and the cowhide staircase was replaced by bison hide.  The polished stone on the entry way and its brass transom and doorway were likewise cleaned.

The restored lobby is a work of art unto itself and the warm interior is allowed to shine.  Aside from a Gutzon Borglum bronze head of Abraham Lincoln, small bronzes by Remington and Russel (and a small Russel painting of a buffalo hunt), the only other work of art in it is John Colman's Visions of Change, a colossal bronze showing a buffalo jump and presiding Native American on one side and a tired-looking cowboy overseeing a herd of longhorns on the other--it is so big that the transom had to be removed and then replaced to get it in the door.  An admissions desk is found where the old card catalogues once stood, and behind that is the new two-story gallery space with a full-sized replica of a Wells Fargo Stagecoach.  This room is light-filled with floor-to ceiling windows, facing the Riverwalk.  To the left, under the mezzanine

Mezzanine

walkway is a space for new acquisitions, while to the right rear is the Women's Gallery which contains works of women artists as well as some paintings by men illustrating female subjects.

The mezzanine level has narrow galleries surrounding the open space with paintings and sculpture, and in tribute to Dolph Briscoe, his desk and memorabilia in the area leading to the Guenther Pavilion walkway at this level.

There are five galleries on the top floor; the largest two with diverse works--painting and

3rd floor large galleries

sculpture again, but also saddles, spurs, a chuckwagon and old weapons and traps which brings home the idea that what we call "western art" encompasses far more than conventional paintings and sculpture.

A small gallery named for Kate Marmion, the late granddaughter of Governor Briscoe, has changing exhibitions of smaller paintings and photographs, many of them dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The third floor is completed by two galleries on the opposite side, one dedicated to a scale model of the siege of the Alamo--as populous and large as Hertzberg's model circus, and other Alamo-related material--some of them artifacts, others

Alamo matter

(painting and sculpture) dedicated to telling the legend as it later developed.  The second gallery houses the Guerra Family collection--paintings, clothing and saddles from Mexico, one of which dates to the 18th century.

Finally, back down on the ground floor is the Clingman Gallery, the multi-purpose remains of the original library reading room enhanced by an added vintage fireplace, its upper walls enhanced by sound baffles masked by large canvasses of WPA-era National Parks.  But something of the

Clingman Gallery (former library reading room)

original library is preserved too: glass-fronted vintage bookcases, now filled with a whimsical and changing display of small objects and artifacts.

Across the passage is a unique room: the Kampmann Library Portal.  In the Kampmann's original deed of land to the city, there was a stipulation that the site always be used as a library. It's a small space with some relevant library books and computers for access to the greater library system--which makes the Briscoe the only Museum in America that has a public library in it! 

        

All the exterior inscriptions and images pay tribute to the building's original purpose, but Shakespeare and Cervantes could use some updating--maybe to busts of Sandra Cisneros and Larry McMurtry?

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The very best history of the Briscoe Museum's conception and carrying out is Emily Crawford Wilson's introduction in the Briscoe's recent catalogue, The West Starts Here, A Decade at the Briscoe, published by the Briscoe Western Art Museum in 2024, and available through https://briscoemuseumstore.org/products/the-west-starts-here-a-decade-at-the-briscoe.

 

Kevin McClellan's article, "The Briscoe Western Art Museum," The Architect's Newspaper, January 24, 2014 can be found online at: https://www.archpaper.com/2014/01/briscoe-western-art-museum/

 

Details of the restoration and construction process was reported in the San Antonio Light, October 30, 2013, p. 107.  A conversation with one of the Restoration Associates revealed the use of mica-based metallic paint. 

 

For the mystery closet, see Scott Huddleston, "Texas museum's forgotten closet yields treasures.  San Antonio's forgotten closet yields tresures: 1615 King James Bible. Civil War War photos among 200 items discovered," San Antonio Express-News, Nov. 8 2010.