See the floor plans for Columbia Museum of Art's renovations

The Columbia Museum of Art will be giving extra tours of its second floor galleries in the coming months, because beginning in March, the galleries will be closed for 18 months.

The museum will renovate the second floor, adding two galleries to allow more room to display its lesser-seen modern and contemporary art collection.

There also will be a new gallery hall that will lead to an event space.

Changes are expected to be complete in 2018.

“The ultimate goal is to be able to have more of our work on view,” Deputy Director Joelle Ryan-Cook said.

The renovations are part of a $16 million campaign to create new galleries for art and education, add a Main Street entrance and expand the museum’s endowment.

Of the money raised for the Think Art campaign, $5 million will be used for renovations.

Renovation money comes from private donors, a one-time $1.2 million appropriation from the state General Assembly and $1 million from the City of Columbia, which owns the museum.

The building itself isn’t expanding. All of the new spaces will be developed from unfinished spaces within the existing building.

The museum will remain open throughout the renovations.

A new executive director will oversee the work that starts this spring. Current director Karen Brosius – under whose leadership the museum was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Museum and Library Service – will be leaving in January to work with a nonprofit culinary program in New York. The museum’s board will look for her successor after Jan. 1.

First floor:

Second floor:

This story was originally published December 21, 2016 at 7:00 AM with the headline "See the floor plans for Columbia Museum of Art's renovations."