Expanded gallery and exhibition spaces meant to bring in new audiences. A collections study and research center for visiting scholars, museum curators, and students dipping into the archives. “Pocket galleries” for displaying additional artwork, and a 125-person space for lectures, gatherings a nd classes. Windows that overlook the Lieutenant River, and connect visitors to the surrounding environment.  That vision is part of a $6.1 million renovation to the Robert and Nancy Krieble Gallery at the Florence Griswold or “FloGris” Museum, a former home of the Lyme Art Colony that first became a museum in 1947. Nestled on a 12-acre campus in Old Lyme, the museum features and teaches the history of American Impressionism in Connecticut, while also collecting work from modern and contemporary American artists.  “What we’re adding to the museum is really important: new ways to find and experience art in our wonderful exhibitions,” Executive Director Peter Steere said at a groundbreaking ceremony at the museum Thursday afternoon. “This expansion brings new ways to inspire. Inspire us, inspire our guests, inspire you today.” From now through the fall of 2027, the museum will work with Petra Construction Corporation and Oudens Ello Architecture, based in North Haven and Boston respectively, to transform the 10,000 square foot Krieble Gallery into a new home for visitors. The project will also add two accessible bathrooms and improved navigation to the museum’s eatery, Café Flo.  It marks the first stage of a larger renovation project for which the museum is still fundraising, Steere confirmed in a phone call Friday. In the initial phase, which received zoning approval from the town last December, the renovation includes a 2,740-square-foot expansion to the Krieble Gallery, a shed-and-gable structure from Centerbrook Architects that hasn’t been updated since it first opened in 2002. In addition, it will feature a long-awaited update to an existing 6,210 square feet of gallery space that has become too small for the organization’s growing collections and volume of visitors.  Currently, the Krieble Gallery has a veranda that will become three midsize “pocket” galleries and one larger gallery that can accommodate groups of up to 125 people. In the larger gallery, Steere said he is especially excited about etched glass windows from the Easton-based artist James Prosek that double as code-compliant bird fritting, to reduce the risk of birds flying into the glass.  In addition, Oudens Ello will build a collections study and research center and update lighting systems installed in 2002. That addition will create a dedicated space for archives, some dating back to the turn of the twentieth century, that have lived in the museum’s collection for eight decades. In addition, the study and research center brings the museum up to speed with many of its regional and national peers.  Peter Steere, executive director of the Florence Griswold Museum, announces the first phase in a groundbreaking on Nov. 12, 2026. Credit: Harold Shapiro / Florence Griswold Museum That funding comes from donations to the museum’s $24.2 million “Inspiration Lives Here” capital campaign, which the board launched in spring 2022 and has steered through three leadership transitions since. Over the past four years, the museum said farewell to former Executive Director Rebekah Beaulieu, who led the museum from 2018 to 2022, and Joshua Campbell Torrance, who served as executive director from 2023 to 2025.  Steere, who was named interim director last fall and has officially held the role since February of this year, said the campaign has brought in close to $12 million to date. “I’m over the moon” to finally see it through, he said in a phone call Friday morning.  While the Krieble Gallery is temporarily closed, the museum’s multi-building campus will remain largely open, with exhibition space on the second floor of the eponymous Florence Griswold House. Those sites include the John and Dyanne Rafal Landscape Center, Kelly Bill and John W. Hartman Education Center, and William Chadwick Studio, as well as the museum’s grounds and gardens.  The Robert F. Schumann Artists’ Trail, a half-mile loop that gives visitors the chance to experience the landscape as artists like Henry Ward Ranger and Childe Hassam once did, will also remain open. In that same spirit, the museum will open its annual “Holiday Magic” exhibition later this month.  Conrad Ello, a founding principal of Oudens Ello, called the renovation part of “a more immersive museum experience,” where visitors can move more easily from one part of the campus to another and connect with the natural landscape. In that sense, he said, the Krieble Gallery is just a beginning: since 2024, Oudens Ello has worked with the museum to map out a multi-phase site plan for the campus. This moment marks the start of that work. “This relationship between art and landscape has really always been here. It’s beautifully expressed in Ms. Griswold’s house and gardens, and our challenge was to extend that experience through the campus, including Krieble Gallery,” he said. “We’re truly thrilled to be part of this transformation and we look forward to the year ahead.”  For many longtime fans of the museum, as well as board members, staff, and town officials, the renovation marks a continued commitment to teaching a history that is specific to Old Lyme, and national and international in significance and scope.  The back of the Robert and Nancy Krieble Gallery, as i’s expected to look a year from now in the fall of 2027. Credit: Courtesy of Oudens Ello Architecture When New York artist Henry Ward Ranger founded the Old Lyme Art Colony at the turn of the twentieth century, he sought to create an American equivalent of the French Barbizon School, which preceded the artists of the Belle Époque. With colleagues who included Roger Wilson Dennis, Guy Wiggins, Bruce Crane, Hassam (perhaps the most famous among them), and hundreds of others, they built an enduring movement that connected Connecticut’s natural landscape with a new way of thinking about how painters document the world around them.  Now, the museum’s expansion and renovation will carry on that legacy, several speakers said Thursday. Old Lyme First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker noted the importance of Old Lyme’s history as a vibrant touchpoint for American Impressionism.  “When Miss Florence opened the doors to the Lyme Art Colony over a century ago, she created a space where the unique light, the verdant landscape, and the bend of the Lieutenant River ignited a legendary creative energy,” Shoemaker said. “Today, we’re keeping the fire burning bright. The expansion and renovation of the Krieble Gallery isn’t just about brick and mortar and new skylights. It’s about keeping our town’s cultural crown jewel forward-looking, open, and accessible to all.” Steere said he hopes the museum can proceed with a second phase in the coming years, but it will require more fundraising.  ...read more read less