Ground has broken on the project to connect the Cayuga Museum to the Schweinfurth Art Center.
Elected officials, museum and art center staff, and community members were in front of the Schweinfurth on Wednesday to officially start work on the West End Arts Campus. When complete, the campus will improve accessibility and aesthetics at both sites through improvements to the parking lots and sidewalks as well as adding signage and lighting.
The Schweinfurth will create a new ADA-accessible entrance at the rear of its site while the Cayuga Museum will make enhancements to its ADA-accessible entrance.
Space at the rear of the property will also be used for outdoor programming.
During construction, the museum will cease operations at the historic Willard-Case Mansion and move downtown to 144 Genesee St, Suite 100. The final day of operation at the mansion as well as the final day for tours of the Case Research Lab will be Saturday. The museum will then reopen at the downtown site on June 1.
Similarly, the Schweinfurth will close its galleries on May 27; however, the art center’s clay studio, Summer Arts Camp, classes, offices, and gift shop will remain open. The galleries will reopen in August with a new exhibition.
Five years in the making, Executive Director of the Cayuga Museum, Kirsten Gosch, has served as the museum’s director throughout the entirety of the project’s planning phase. She told Finger Lakes News Radio that she’s excited to see work begin.
“I’m really eager to get started and see what a fun summer this will be… It’s great that I’ve been so involved in it I know it inside and out so I’m so excited to see it happen now,” said Gosch.
The museum anticipates work on its portion of the project will take place throughout the summer and fall while the Schweinfurth’s work is expected to last until March 2025.
The campus project is funded through Auburn’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative Award, ARPA funding, and the Emerson Foundation as well as a combination of smaller grants and fundraising efforts.



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