The topic of what happens when museums close for construction was the focus of my master's thesis research a few years ago. It is a bit lengthy but easy enough to skim. You can access the PDF here:
http://danamuses.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/closedtothepublic.pdf
My interest in the topic began as the National Museum of American History was readying itself to close for a renovation (nearly 2 years). We reopened in November 08 and I'd be happy to share my thoughts on what it was like to be closed and what we learned from the reopening process. (In fact, I'll be talking about this at AAM tomorrow afternoon with a few esteemed colleagues-- check out "From Construction Site to Museum: Managing the Opening Process" at 3:45pm). We learned a great deal from talking to other institutions about their experiences--and we learned from making our own mistakes too. The end of my paper includes a long list of institutions that have closed during construction that you could use as resources for your own research.
Two other resources you might find interesting:
1. A paper called "Closed to Meet You: Communications During Museum Renovations" by Marcello La Rosa: Director of Ires-Piemonte (Turin) and Vittorio Falletti: expert in museum communications and marketing, member of ICOM. I have a PDF of it but can't find it online.
2. "The Museum Brand Footprint: The Role of Architecture in Defining the Museum's Image" by DMD, a marketing company. http://www.dmdinsight.com/papers/
Best of luck!
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Dana Allen-Greil
Project Manager, New Media
National Museum of American History
Smithsonian Institution
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