Uptown and downtown, re-imagined museums in New York prepare to reopen – The Art Newspaper

After years of planning, fundraising and development, two of New York Metropolis’s most influential up to date artwork establishments—the Studio Museum in Harlem and the New Museum on the Bowery—are making ready to reopen to the general public this autumn, every unveiling a serious architectural transformation that guarantees to reshape their function within the cultural cloth of the town.

In Harlem, the Studio Museum will open its first purpose-built facility, a monumental new seven-storey constructing rising on West a hundred and twenty fifth Avenue that affirms the museum’s historic roots within the neighbourhood whereas positioning it for a brand new period of progress. Downtown, the New Museum will debut a prismatic seven-storey enlargement to its current flagship constructing at 235 Bowery, doubling its exhibition area and amplifying its function as a hub for experimental artwork.

Designed to increase gallery, studio and public areas; enrich instructional and public programming; and deepen engagement with their surrounding communities, each tasks embody a renewed imaginative and prescient of the museum as a porous, adaptive and domestically grounded establishment.

A purpose-built residence in Harlem

Conceived in the course of the cultural and political ferment of the Civil Rights period, the Studio Museum in Harlem was based in 1968 by a coalition of artists, activists and philanthropists decided to create a platform for artists of African descent. Since then, it has performed a defining function in shaping cultural discourse each domestically and internationally, amplifying Black creative voices from its longtime residence on West a hundred and twenty fifth Avenue.

On 15 November, the museum will unveil a brand new chapter in its historical past: an 82,000 sq. ft facility constructed on the positioning of its former residence. Designed by Adjaye Associates with Cooper Robertson as govt architect, the brand new constructing would be the historic establishment’s first purpose-built residence, designed and constructed expressly for its mission and its increasing ambitions.

“Our unimaginable new constructing makes it all of the extra attainable for us to proceed the work our founders got down to do,” Thelma Golden, the museum’s director and chief curator, tells The Artwork Newspaper. “To me, our new museum is a tribute to our founders, to Black artwork and to the folks, previous and current of Harlem.”

The Studio Museum first opened in a rented loft at 2033 Fifth Avenue earlier than transferring in 1982 to a transformed financial institution at 144 West a hundred and twenty fifth Avenue, refitted by the architect J. Max Bond Jr. In 2015, the museum introduced plans to assemble a brand new residence on the identical web site. Designs by Adjaye Associates and Cooper Robertson had been revealed in 2017, and the museum closed shortly thereafter to start development.

In June, the museum introduced that its capital marketing campaign had exceeded its $300m objective for the venture. Developed in partnership with the Metropolis of New York, the brand new constructing will permit the museum to perform as a social gathering place whereas increasing its exhibition and programming potential, deepening its function as an incubator for rising artists of African and Afro-Latinx descent.

The brand new constructing was designed to mirror its wealthy creative and cultural surroundings whereas providing accessible public area. Its structure attracts on Harlem’s iconic brownstones, bustling road life and locations of worship, with a ground-floor façade fabricated from precast concrete and glass that dissolves the boundary between museum and neighbourhood.

Inside, the brand new facility options 14,000 sq. ft of exhibition area—a 60% enhance from its former residence—together with 2,100 sq. ft of studios for the museum’s artist-in-residence programme. The enlargement additionally broadens the museum’s customer facilities and public gathering areas, with options such because the “reverse stoop”—a stepped area descending into the museum that doubles as a versatile programming area for lectures and occasions. An extra 8,000 sq. ft of out of doors area, together with a rooftop terrace with sweeping views of the encircling neighbourhood, will probably be used for programming and particular occasions.

“Our reopening…is an embodiment of the visions, desires and aspirations of the pioneering people who inaugurated our museum in 1968,” Golden says. “They understood the importance of getting an establishment which concurrently served as an area devoted to artists of African descent and as a communal hub the place Harlem residents may participate in instructional programmes and neighborhood occasions.”

Wanting again and ahead

To inaugurate its new residence, the Studio Museum will open with a complete survey of the late artist, educator and activist Tom Lloyd. Lloyd’s work was the topic of the museum’s inaugural 1968 exhibition, Digital Refractions II, and this new presentation returns to that foundational second whereas re-examining his trailblazing integration of expertise and artwork. The present additionally highlights Lloyd’s activism, together with his work with the Artwork Employees’ Coalition and his founding of the Retailer Entrance Museum in Queens.

The museum’s opening programme will even showcase works drawn from its practically 9,000-piece everlasting assortment. Displayed all through the inaugural yr, the rotating presentation will supply a thematic survey of creative manufacturing by artists of African descent throughout two centuries. Among the many featured artists are Romare Bearden, Religion Ringgold, Jordan Casteel, Rashid Johnson, Dawoud Bey and Lorraine O’Grady. A brand new assortment handbook, Which means Matter Reminiscence, printed by Phaidon, will accompany the exhibition.

Paying tribute to the museum’s famend artist residency, greater than 100 works on paper by previous contributors will probably be proven within the new constructing’s fourth-floor studio areas. The presentation displays on the programme’s legacy and affect forward of the arrival of the subsequent group of resident artists in early 2026.

Elsewhere within the constructing, an archival exhibition of historic paperwork, video footage and programming ephemera will hint the Studio Museum’s evolution and cultural affect, charting its progress over six a long time right into a defining establishment in Harlem’s creative panorama.

All year long, the museum will even debut site-specific works commissioned for its expanded venture areas, with contributions by the artists Camille Norment, Christopher Myers and Kapwani Kiwanga, to be put in within the museum’s terrace staircase, new training centre and second-floor venture area, respectively. In tandem, a number of landmark works from its assortment which have develop into carefully related to the museum will return to public view. David Hammons’s Untitled (African American Flag) (2004) will probably be reinstalled on the museum’s façade, whereas Glenn Ligon’s Give Us a Poem (2007) will probably be displayed within the foyer.

Expanded area for innovation

Means downtown on the Bowery, the New Museum—Manhattan’s solely establishment devoted completely to up to date artwork—can also be making ready to reopen its doorways on an undisclosed date this autumn. Closed for the reason that spring of 2024, it’s getting set to unveil a seven-storey, 62,000 sq. ft enlargement designed by OMA’s Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas, in collaboration with Cooper Robertson as govt architect.

Designed as a complementary but distinct counterpoint to the museum’s current Sanaa-designed flagship constructing, the OMA enlargement will double the New Museum’s gallery area, aligning ceiling heights and circulation throughout each constructions. The design enhances customer circulation and public gathering areas, with three new elevators, a central atrium stairwell and a brand new out of doors plaza on the intersection of Bowery and Prince Avenue, which is able to characteristic rotating public artwork installations. The museum has raised $118m towards its $125m capital marketing campaign objective for the venture.

Based in 1977 in a short lived area on Hudson Avenue, the New Museum has at all times served as a platform for rising and experimental artwork. With the brand new constructing, the establishment goals to deepen its function as a civic and cultural hub, providing improved facilities and expanded entry to its programmes.

“Over our 50-year historical past, now we have been pushed by the impetus to raised serve artists and the general public,” says Lisa Phillips, the New Museum’s director. “OMA’s design for the enlargement addresses essential wants for artists and guests whereas additionally offering the pliability for the New Museum to proceed to adapt and experiment.”

Among the many museum’s new options and facilities are an expanded foyer with a bigger bookstore and full-service restaurant helmed by the chef Julia Sherman, an expanded seventh-floor area with panoramic downtown views and versatile programming areas together with a 74-seat discussion board for lectures and screenings. The enlargement additionally creates devoted studios for artists-in-residence and, for the primary time, a everlasting residence for New Inc, the museum’s tradition and expertise incubator. The ability will embody collaborative workspaces and a fabrication and media lab for use by greater than 100 artistic entrepreneurs yearly.

“One of many driving forces of this enlargement was to make key New Museum programmes extra publicly accessible,” Phillips says. “By making a devoted residence for New Inc’s 100-plus annual cohort members and their thrilling, experimental tasks; by doubling the dimensions of the Sky Room and opening up new prospects for training initiatives and public programmes; and by creating a brand new public plaza enlivened with artwork installations inviting folks into the museum—simply to call just a few of the brand new and expanded options of OMA’s design—the New Museum will welcome the general public to our programmes in a means by no means earlier than attainable.”

As a part of its efforts to extend accessibility, the museum will increase its instructional initiatives. In July, it introduced a $1m Arts Training Impression Grant from the Pierre and Tana Matisse Basis, which is able to assist the expansion of initiatives serving highschool college students. These embody the Bowery Artwork Area, a free month-to-month after-school drop-in programme for teenagers, and the NewMu Teen Fellowship, a two-year intensive programme centered on skilled growth and management by engagement with up to date artwork.

New Museum’s new period

The museum will inaugurate its expanded services with New People: Recollections of the Future, a museum-wide exhibition that includes greater than 150 artists, scientists, writers, architects and film-makers. The present options new and up to date works by up to date artists similar to Meriem Bennani, Hito Steyerl, Anicka Yi, Wangechi Mutu, Treasured Okoyomon and Tau Lewis, alongside historic items by Twentieth-century figures together with Francis Bacon, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, Tatsuo Ikedo, Kiki Kogelnik, Hannah Höch and Salvador Dalí. These works will hint how technological and social transformations have regularly reshaped conceptions of the human situation. Framing creative expression as a lens for analyzing the forces that outline humanity, the exhibition will study how right this moment’s anxieties are rooted in enduring questions which have formed human expertise for generations.

The opening will even introduce site-specific commissions, together with Artwork Lovers, a sculptural set up by Tschabalala Self on the museum’s façade, in addition to new works by Sarah Lucas and Klára Hosnedlová, displayed on the doorway plaza and atrium staircase, respectively.

Past its reopening extravaganza, the establishment is planning the primary New York museum solo exhibition dedicated to the artist Arthur Jafa in 2026, in addition to the return of the New Museum Triennial, the museum’s recurring survey of rising artists from around the globe, lengthy considered a bellwether of up to date artwork’s subsequent era.