Museum begins site work at downtown location

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - Demolition work began Monday on a former dance studio adjacent to the future home of the Albany Museum of Art. The building at the southeast corner of Washington Street and Broad Avenue will make way for a sculpture garden.

“This will be the most visible sign of progress in our upcoming move to the former Belk department store that touches the old dance studio on two sides,” AMA Executive Director Andrew J. Wulf, Ph.D., said. “We have been making headway with the cleanup of soil contaminants and the removal of asbestos from the Belk building earlier this year, but this development is one people will easily notice.”

The AMA received approval from the city of Albany and the Albany-Dougherty Historic Preservation Commission for the tearing down of the dance studio, which also was once home to an Otasco auto parts and appliances store. The work is being done by Oxford Construction Co.

“There is a lot of positive progress that is being made,” Wulf said. “The $350,000 in cleanup work that was funded through an EPA Brownfields Grant has helped make Albany a healthier city by removing contaminants, and this teardown will enable us to beautify a rather depressed-looking corner. These are both wonderful wins for our community.”

The AMA will launch a capital campaign this year to raise funding for the 53,000-square-foot museum that will occupy the Belk building once it is renovated. The museum relocation project is expected to cost $12 million to $15 million, and could take five years to complete.

AMA officials say the relocation to the Broad Avenue location will double the facility’s space and make the museum more accessible to the public. “We want to be in the heart of the community,” Wulf said. “We shall be a new, robust anchor of activity in a revitalized downtown district.”