Latest news with #StudioMuseum
Time Out
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Harlem's Studio Museum has set an opening date this fall for its major new building
After being closed for construction since 2018, the Studio Museum in Harlem will reopen on Saturday, November 15 in a new seven-floor, 82,000-square-foot building on West 125th Street. To celebrate the grand opening day, the museum will host a community event with free admission and activities for all ages. The building, custom-designed for the museum, will house art exhibitions, educational opportunities, program spaces and an expansive lobby. For its first show, the Studio Museum will present the work of the late sculptor Tom Lloyd; it's a full-circle moment as his work was part of the institution's opening back in 1968. Another debut show will draw from the museum's vast collection, underscoring the museum's role as a steward of art by artists of African descent. During the building's first year, expect to see newly commissioned site-specific artworks, including a sonic sculptural installation by Camille Norment composed of brass tubing and featuring a chorus of voices. Also look for a wall-mounted, metal-based installation by Christopher Myers that envisions an intergenerational community of hybrid of figures gathered in a fantastical landscape. Iconic Studio Museum artworks will be reinstalled, including David Hammons's work inspired by the pan-African flag; Glenn Ligon's neon wall sculpture "Give Us a Poem;" and Houston E. Conwill's seven bronze time capsules. As for the building itself, its architecture was inspired by brownstones, churches and bustling sidewalks of Harlem. For example, a set of glass doors, which can be opened in different configurations, welcomes people to descending steps mean to evoke the stoops of Harlem's brownstones. The steps can be used as benches for watching lectures, performances, and films—or simply for relaxing. The design has more than doubled space for exhibitions and the artist-in-residence program. Plus, indoor and outdoor public space will increase by almost 70-percent. Furniture by Black creatives will populate the building. The museum will also feature custom-made tables constructed using beams from the museum's former home. A rooftop terrace promises striking views of the neighborhood. The building's design is being led by Adjaye Associates with Cooper Robertson serving as executive architect. To fund the project, The Studio Museum raised more than $300 million from museum trustees, the city, foundations, corporate partners and individual donors. The Studio Museum dates back to 1968 when it was founded by a diverse group of artists, community activists and philanthropists who sought to address the near-complete exclusion of Black artists from mainstream museums, commercial art galleries, academic institutions and scholarly publications. It continues that mission today as a nexus for artists of African descent locally, nationally and internationally and for work that has been inspired and influenced by Black culture. Location, hours and pricing The Studio Museum in Harlem is located at 144 West 125th Street, between Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard (Seventh Avenue). It will be open Wednesday through Sunday, from 11am to 6pm, with extended hours on Friday and Saturday, from 11am to 9pm. Admission rates are offered as a suggestion, with Sundays free for everyone. Suggested rates are $16 for adults and $9 for seniors aged 65+, students, and visitors with disabilities (care partners are free). Admission is free for children sixteen and under. Tickets can purchased online at or at the museum.
Hypebeast
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
The Studio Museum in Harlem Will Reopen in November
Summary The Studio Museum in Harlemwill open the doors to its new 82,000-square-foot home on November 15, 2025. The announcement comes as an exciting new development for museum-goers following the institution's seven-year overhaul period. Originally slated to reopen in 2022, the museum closed its doors in 2018, tearing down its former building to make room for the multimillion-dollar expansion project, helmed byDavid Adjayeof Adjaye Associates. Housed within its seven floors, the structure will see an over 70% spatial increase across indoor and outdoor offerings, alongside 14,000 square feet dedicated to state-of-the-art exhibition space, a rooftop terrance, flexible program spaces and a studio and lounge for pioneering Artist-in-Residence program. The museum's Studio Store will also debut a range of publications and new products by Black-owned businesses. In terms of showcases to look forward to, the Studio Museum will present four exhibitions, two site-specific commissions and mount works from its esteemed collections. Heading the charge will be a survey exhibition dedicated to artist and activist Tom Lloyd, whose work was the subject of the institution's inaugural exhibition in 1968. 'As our historic homecoming approaches, I am reflecting on the transformative vision of the artists, supporters and community members who have helped us shape this pivotal moment in our legacy,' said Chief Curator Thelma Golden in a recent statement. 'Our breathtaking new building is an invaluable space and a tribute to the museum's mission and the vitality of artists of African descent. I am thrilled to welcome everyone back to a reimagined Studio Museum, rooted in Harlem and resonating far beyond.' The Studio Museum in Harlem will celebrate its new home with a building-wide Community Day on November 15, offering free admission and arts programming for visitors. For more information, head to the museum'swebsite.
New York Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Studio Museum in Harlem Sets an Opening Date
After the Studio Museum in Harlem closed its doors for renovations in 2018, it would take seven years and a $300 million capital campaign that nearly doubled its original goal to finally set an opening date. With construction delays and fund-raising hurdles cleared, the museum will reopen to the public on Nov. 15, the nonprofit announced on Tuesday morning. The new building, at 244 West 125th Street, houses seven floors of galleries, artist studios, workshops and education centers. 'Our breathtaking new building is more than just a space; it is a monumental testament to the museum's mission and the vitality of artists of African descent,' Thelma Golden, the museum's director and chief curator, said in an interview. 'I am thrilled to welcome everyone back to a reimagined Studio Museum.' The suggested admission rate for adults will be $16 — nearly half of what other major museums are charging — and $9 for seniors and students, while tickets remain free for children under 16 and visitors with disabilities. During a tour in July, there were only a few artworks installed, including a 2007 wall sculpture by Glenn Ligon that has the word 'WE' reflected underneath the word 'ME.' Highlights of the new building include a teaching room, a vaulted gallery capable of holding monumental sculptures and a rooftop garden with impressive southern views of Manhattan. Golden said the museum expected to increase its staff size by a third to around 120 full-time employees; she also predicted that its annual budget, which was 11 million before closing, would need to expand. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
South China Morning Post
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
3 newly revived New York art museums to get excited about
New York has long been synonymous with stellar museums. From Staten Island to the Bronx, more than 170 of all kinds are scattered across its five boroughs. Now, after years hidden behind scaffolding, three of the city's most iconic art institutions – The Frick, the New Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem – will all finally reopen by this autumn. Each is offering expanded public spaces and ambitious inaugural exhibitions, reaffirming their contribution to the city's cultural landscape. One of the country's best collections of European Old Masters will be reinstalled in The Frick's refreshed galleries, with more works on view than ever before. The New Museum's expansion creates a larger platform for emerging and experimental artists, and the Studio Museum in Harlem continues to champion artists of African descent while also providing a new creative hub for the local community. 'What's particularly special is that we've all been around and had a presence in our neighbourhood and the larger ecosystem for years,' says New Museum artistic director Massimiliano Gioni. 'We aren't new kids on the block – each one of us is reconnecting to a long history and making a much larger contribution.' The Frick Collection The Frick has reopened following a five-year renovation. Photo: Nicholas Venezia Advertisement One of New York's most revered museums, The Frick reopened to the public in April following a five-year renovation. The former home of industrialist Henry Clay Frick, the Upper East Side mansion was transformed into a museum in 1935 and has remained largely unchanged since. The art world's go-to architect, Annabelle Selldorf – known for designing blue-chip galleries like David Zwirner and Hauser & Wirth – has given the former family home a major facelift. 'Many people cherish The Frick for its intimate setting, which lets visitors experience masterworks up close with minimal distractions,' says Aimee Ng, John Updike curator (so named for the museum's association with the late author). 'The recent renovation maintains this atmosphere while making the building more accessible.' Lodovico Capponi (1550–1555) by Agnolo Bronzino, part of The Frick Collection. Photo: Joseph Coscia Jr The red rope that has blocked access to the family's private quarters for the last five decades has now been dropped, allowing the public to enter the bedrooms and living quarters, which have been transformed into galleries. 'The domestic scale of these second-floor spaces, including around 10 rooms and several passageways, creates an ideal atmosphere for engaging with the collection,' says Ng of the ornate spaces adorned with ceiling murals, marble fireplaces and intricately carved woodwork. Iconic paintings have been reinstated in their original locations, such as English artist George Romney's evocative Lady Hamilton as 'Nature' (1782), which once again sits above the fireplace in the walnut room, formerly Frick's bedroom. His daughter Helen Clay Frick's room will be filled with luminous, early Italian gold-ground paintings – paying homage to her love for these Renaissance masterpieces. The Frick Research Library is directly accessible from the museum. Photo: Nicholas Venezia The renovation also features new spaces for public programming, including an impressive 218-seat auditorium for concerts and lectures, a new cafe and a revamped reception hall. The galleries now accommodate a greater number of works: while previously only 25 per cent of the 1,800-piece collection – which spans the Renaissance through the 19th century – could be shown, the expansion now allows close to half of all works to be displayed. The inaugural show, 'Vermeer's Love Letters', features rare works by the 17th century Dutch master, one of the most popular names in the collection. Studio Museum in Harlem
New York Times
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Challenges of Opening Gleaming New Museums in a Fraught Art Landscape
This fall, two New York City museums that have helped shape contemporary culture are finally reopening to the public. One is the New Museum, the pioneering non-collecting institution on Bowery, which closed last year to build an expansion, designed by OMA/Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas, that will nearly double its exhibition space. The other is the Studio Museum in Harlem, the influential center for work by Black and African diaspora artists, which is opening a long-awaited new home on 125th Street, designed by Adjaye Associates in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, after closing its old building for demolition in 2018. While both museums have stayed active through off-site and virtual programs, the opening of their new spaces will return New York's museum landscape to its welcome density. The Studio Museum, founded in 1968, and the New Museum, born in 1977, have expanded the scope and audiences for contemporary art for decades, in the process evolving from alternative roots that challenged the hierarchy to power players in their own right. For Lisa Phillips, director of the New Museum since 1999, and Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum since 2005, the connections are personal too. The two are good friends — they talk several times a week — and have shared experiences as female leaders whose influence in the museum field is felt not only in exhibitions and programs, but also through the many curators and other professionals who came through their institutions early in their careers. Tempering the excitement, however, is the current fraught atmosphere for cultural organizations. This new reality has brought — so far — deep cuts in staffing and grantmaking by the National Endowment for the Humanities, efforts to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and ultimatums by President Trump to end diversity programs and remove what he describes as 'corrosive' and 'anti-American' ideology from the Smithsonian Institution. Recently, the incoming director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, described the overall climate around museums under the Trump administration as 'volatile.' When we met in early March in downtown Manhattan, Phillips and Golden were guarded in addressing the current atmosphere, but they said they were drawing on historical lessons to reinforce their sense of mission. This conversation, reflecting a joint interview and follow-up questions by telephone, has been edited for length and clarity. How do you plan to reintroduce your museums to New Yorkers and visitors? LISA PHILLIPS With the doubling of our space, we have an opportunity to do broader outreach than we've ever done. We're mobilizing our whole staff to go into the neighborhood and have personal interactions with both our partners and beyond. There are so many organizations around us. Shopkeepers, residents in NYCHA housing, we have an opportunity to go out and to invite people in. And there is going to be so much to experience in the architecture, in addition to the art program. THELMA GOLDEN I know that both the designs of our institutions took in a thoughtful approach to create deeper experiences, not just for artists but for audiences. We'll be welcoming people who had never come to the Studio Museum, to have this be the occasion to invite them to the museum and to Harlem. Thelma, in these seven years, a huge amount has happened that connects to the museum's core mission of presenting the work of artists of African descent — from the Black Lives Matter upsurge in 2020 to the surging market and its impact on artists. Was it frustrating to not be open during that time? GOLDEN Absolutely. Frustrating because we were made for this moment, our history in some ways ushered in this moment. But there was something profound in being able to witness it as we were working to build this next life for this institution. The energy around artists of African descent lives as proof of concept to what our founders imagined when they took a little loft on 125th Street and Fifth Avenue. They were imagining a future for Black artists in the world that at that time did not exist, but they knew that they could see it and they could work to make it happen. PHILLIPS There was also a tremendous acknowledgment in the field of the history and legacy of the Studio Museum and its impact on all of us during this time. So in a way, it was constantly alive. Are there lessons from the last few years that you each carry into programs as you reopen? PHILLIPS It's been a period of profound disruptions — not just the last year and a half, but the last decade. The pandemic made us think about our programs differently, because we had to be remote, find ways to engage our audience outside of the norm. We realized that virtual platforms are as important as bricks and mortar. I know we believe similarly in that. GOLDEN This building project has meant rooting deeply in legacy — to project into the next idea of what we will be as a museum. For our founders the canon could not be complete without the voices and visions of Black artists, so they were going to reimagine and open that canon. They were trying to think of a museum as studio, this museum in Harlem as a new type. That's what we can be doing in this moment — imagining a new form of museum as we make a future. How does this opportunity change the Studio Museum's approach to collecting? Can you collect more works in a wide variety of mediums and forms? GOLDEN Yes, it means we can collect more. How we collect, why we collect, is an ongoing question. I am not a big fan of trying to predict too far into the future on these questions. I think some of this is responsive to real time. Each successive generation can make decisions that make sense for the institution in that time. All the forms are on the table in a way that represents the breadth and depth of art being made by artists of African descent today. While our acquisitions budget is expected to increase, our primary source of new works will continue to be gifts and bequests to the museum. Lisa, the New Museum is non-collecting. How do you challenge and grow the canon? PHILLIPS [The first director] Marcia Tucker said, 'I had to found a museum in order to work in one,' because her interests were so outside of the norm that it was impossible to work in a traditional institution. Our name is paradoxical: New Museum. We always have this tension. We always have to push ourselves to go beyond the canon. There are always going to be artists who are underrecognized and not part of the mainstream dialogue. We don't collect, as you noted. We see ourselves as producers, working collaboratively with artists, helping artists realize their visions. How will you balance admission fees with growing the audience? The emerging norm in U.S. museums is pushing $30. PHILLIPS We won't be $30. We get a significant amount of our income from admissions, but we understand that it's a barrier to access. Our pay-what-you-wish Thursday evenings are very popular; we always have discounts for seniors and students, and entry is free to those under 18. We are also exploring the possibility of a community membership for those in our ZIP code. Our hope is that, with our encouragement, funders will underwrite expanded free access. GOLDEN We need a cultural shift that values what it means to make the experiences in museums accessible, so that underwriting wouldn't seem such a hard thing to make happen universally. The reason I work in museums is because I grew up in the city in a moment when almost all the museums had free admission for high school students — which they do again now. But for our institutions to live, admission becomes a form of income that we need. You said a cultural shift. Where would that come from? GOLDEN It would come from the idea that these museum experiences would exist like libraries, parks, and should be open to all. PHILLIPS When we were open during the pandemic, we saw the great value that the public put on museums right away. It was one of the safest places for people to convene. We had public officials calling us, begging us to reopen. According to city data for 2024, New York attracts nearly 65 million visitors per year. Do enough of them go to museums? culturPHILLIPS Tourism is important. Fifty percent of our audience are people visiting the city. We have an international program so we are attracting audiences from all over the world, which is great. But we also have a very strong local audience too, from the ZIP codes around the museum, and Brooklyn. GOLDEN For us it's probably 30 percent tourists. Quite often visitors come to Harlem to have cultural and art experiences, and we are able to program in response to that. Providing many different kinds of experiences, of not just our mission but of the neighborhood's culture and history. You've each announced your reopening exhibitions — a museum-wide exhibition 'New Humans: Memories of the Future' at the New Museum, and an exhibition of Tom Lloyd, an artist and activist who had the very first show at the Studio Museum's original loft space in 1968. What else is coming up? PHILLIPS One way to stay new is to look at the new and the old. That's not something that's expected of our institution. 'New Humans' will look at over a century of art that deals with the relationship between humans and technology. The subtitle, 'Memories of the Future,' suggests that progress is never a straight line. I'm also doing an exhibition on 400 years of Bowery history, coming up. And supporting artists who are creating new works. You're going to see a lot more new pieces made on site. We will have a dedicated studio residency program. And we'll have our 100 New Inc members on site again. GOLDEN We will continue a program that thinks deeply about artists of African descent, and ideas, including thematic group shows. We will continue creating exhibitions that look at artists early in their career. Our artist residency program has been in existence since our founding. And we'll continue survey exhibitions of individual artists. But we are also thinking about how the building itself creates new opportunities to commission site-specific works, to work on our roof, the building facade. We expect to announce new exhibitions and programs closer to reopening. Lisa, there was turbulence on the labor front in 2019 when employees at the New Museum unionized. How would you characterize relations with labor now? How are you hoping to take care of your people in the years ahead, with a lot of economic uncertainty? PHILLIPS I think we have a good relationship with the union now. That process, as painful as it was, also made us — and me — realize some things that we maybe hadn't understood. The immense need for a director of human resources, for instance. We didn't have a long enough family leave. We extended that. We've kept all our full-time and part-time staff employed through our closure. Which was a heavy lift, but worth it to give everyone that security. The pressure on the arts now affects federal agencies and institutions first, like the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian or the N.E.H., but it trickles through the system. As museum directors, how do you see the landscape? Is there a state of emergency? PHILLIPS It hasn't changed our mission or our values. And it's made it even more important to do the work that we do. We're paying attention. We have a strong network of colleagues, and we need to be in constant conversation. We also need to learn how to be platforms for conversation that may involve ideas that are at odds with our personal beliefs. This is a skill set that leaders have to have in every institution. GOLDEN I've been trying to learn a lot from history. The Studio Museum was born in a moment like this. So I have been trying to lead with the wisdom that comes from those who have had to create a sense of a future in an awful time before. This is also a moment which continues to create real clarity about our missions. We need to be the space that allows for artists in this moment to make their work, present their work, be in conversation with each other and audiences. And it makes it clear that we want spaces that allow for conversations about truth and democracy, that are invested in complex narratives and give form to our ability to narrate how we all see the world through our eyes: Individual stories, collective stories, our ability to recognize what is the humanity in each other. All of that can come through our experience in encountering art. So it feels like a moment where what we do is incredibly necessary. PHILLIPS Progress isn't a straight line. We're in new territory. But that is also our challenge. By exposing people to new experiences and forms of art making, we're opening minds. And that really fosters tolerance for difference, for change. What share of your budget comes from federal sources? Are you analyzing your exposure to changes in federal funding? PHILLIPS Less than 1 percent of our annual budget comes from federal grants. But all contributions are significant for a nonprofit institution; we've learned that building as many different income streams as possible is essential to weathering disruptions that have become the norm in our world. During the pandemic we lost all of our earned income, for instance. It's important to make sure that you're not overly dependent on any one source because there can be disruptions in any number of directions. It's also an evolutionary moment. We have to keep imagining what the future could be. GOLDEN Likewise, less than 1 percent of our funding is covered by federal grants. All our income sources play a critical role in ensuring the Studio Museum remains accessible to all audiences. Among changes in the field, there are many more women leaders in museums, for instance, where each of you was in some sense a pioneer. GOLDEN But we still exist within a field that is not equitable, in many ways. PHILLIPS A number of us have supported each other. We were lucky to have mentors who … GOLDEN … who were pioneers in this field. Not only those who founded and ran our institutions but across this field there were women who really created a path. PHILLIPS We feel deeply the importance of doing that for others. Incubating talent and the next generation of leadership is our most important job.
