The renovation of the Bloch Galleries transforms 9,000 square feet of the original 1933 Nelson-Atkins building. The expanded galleries add more than 220 linear feet of wall space, and create an open viewing experience with sightlines encouraging viewers to make connections among works. The design was developed in the context of strategies for strengthening the audience experience of the 1933 Building and adjacent galleries on levels one and two. The installation presents themes within the general chronology, presenting a fuller story of Western art. The galleries will feature state-of-the-art technology, including tunable dynamic white lighting that can simulate the environments for which the works were originally created and allow precise control of lighting color and intensity on each specific artwork in the galleries; the galleries will also feature the first use of lower power blue tooth locators to automatically configure audio system playback for docent lead tours.

The Galleries feature the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. Comprised of 29 masterpieces acquired by the Bloch family and gifted to the museum in 2010, the Bloch Collection nearly doubles the museum’s current holdings of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. In 2015, the Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation provided an $11.7-million gift to support renovation of the museum’s European art galleries to integrate the Bloch Collection into its existing collections and keep the work on permanent view.