On January 16, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will open a reinstallation of its collection of American art in “expanded, reconceived, and dramatic new galleries.”

“This final phase of the American Wing renovation project is comprised of twenty-six renovated and enlarged galleries on the second floor,” according to the museum. “The new architectural design is a contemporary interpretation of nineteenth-century Beaux-Arts galleries, including coved ceilings and natural light flowing through new skylights. The redesign, which has added 3,300 square feet of gallery space, also allows for a chronological installation of the American paintings and sculpture, and improved pathways connecting to adjacent areas of the Museum.

“The Museum’s encyclopedic collection will offer visitors the broad sweep of American history as told through great works of art. The aforementioned central gallery focuses on the themes of freedom, exploration, and expansion that pervaded America during the mid-nineteenth century. Other subjects, themes, and periods presented in the new galleries include: Colonial Portraiture, the American Revolution, the Young Republic, the Civil War Era, Art in the Folk Tradition, the Hudson River School, the West, the Cosmopolitan Spirit, and American Impressionism.”

The New American Wing opens January 16 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, at 82nd Street, 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org. Member previews take place January 13-15.

Franklin Einspruch is an artist and writer. He blogs at Artblog.net.