Dia Art Foundation announces completion of the renovation of the historic facility that will become Dia: Beacon, a new museum opening to the public in Beacon, New York, on May 18, 2003. Located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, this former printing plant which was donated to Dia in 1999 and will house its renowned but rarely seen collection of contemporary art. Dia is installing in the new museum works of art dating from the early 1960s to the present. Dia: Beacon includes 240,000 square feet of gallery space, named the ¿Riggio Galleries¿ in recognition of the generous donations made by Leonard Riggio. Each gallery is devoted to work by a single artist, and is designed to fulfill the particular needs of the art it contains. A number of these installations have been created in collaboration with the artists themselves. The art installation at Dia: Beacon will be completed in May 2003 and will exhibit work by the following artists: Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois, John Chamberlain, Hanne Darboven, Walter De Maria, Dan Flavin, Michael Heizer, Robert Irwin, Donald Judd, On Kawara, Imi Knoebel, Sol Le Witt, Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman, Blinky Palermo, Gerhard Richter, Robert Ryman, Fred Sandback, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Andy Warhol, Lawrence Winer, and Robert Whitman. Dia Art Foundation was founded in 1974. Dia plays a vital role among visual arts organization nationally and internationally by initiating, supporting, presenting, and preserving art projects, and by serving as a locus for interdisciplinary art and criticism. In addition to the new museum in Beacon, Dia presents exhibitions and public programming at Dia Center for the Arts, in Chelsea, New York which will be renamed Dia: Chelsea after the new museum opens.