A year after the project’s inception, excavation for the new Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA) is set to start in February. Construction on the 129,000-square-foot facility will begin later this year, barring the finding of any ancient items during the dig.
The museum has been in the works for more than ten years, and it will open in circumstances that are substantially different from those in which it was imagined. The institution is viewed as a cultural necessity by the Lebanese arts community as it arrives as the country’s economic situation worsens and more people find themselves without heat or food, as well as in the wake of the 2020 Beirut port explosion that killed hundreds and cost billions in damage.
In November of last year, BeMA co-director Taline Boladian told a panel at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, “We need to preserve our national identity right now, particularly in this period of crisis, before it evaporates.” The group had gathered to reveal the institution’s plans, which call for large galleries with an average square footage of 5,600, a vertical wraparound promenade that will allow artwork to be displayed outdoors, three generators, and a number of rooftop solar panels to address the ongoing power problems in the nation.
The concept, which was inspired by several pop-up exhibitions held in Lebanon and the US, is anticipated to be finished in 2026. A total of 1,275 pieces from the late nineteenth century through 2001 will be included in BeMa’s permanent collection, with a special emphasis on artworks created between 1950 and 1975 in the form of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. The pieces are from a larger collection of over 2,400 rarely or never before seen works that the Lebanese government has accumulated over the previous century; many of them are currently undergoing restoration after being kept in less-than-ideal storage conditions.