New Museum

New Museum
Name	New Museum
Established	1977
Location	Lower Manhattan, New York City
Type	Contemporary art museum
Director	Lisa Phillips

New Museum The New Museum is a contemporary art institution in Lower Manhattan, New York City, dedicated to presenting new art and emergent artists. Founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, the institution has presented international exhibitions featuring artists from across Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania and has engaged with institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, and the Walker Art Center. Its programs have intersected with biennials, art fairs, universities, and cultural ministries including the Venice Biennale, Documenta, São Paulo Bienal, Tate Liverpool, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

History

The museum was founded in 1977 by curator Marcia Tucker following her curatorial tenure at the Whitney Museum of American Art; early board members included figures connected to the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and alternative spaces like Artists Space and A.I.R. Gallery. In the 1980s the institution collaborated with galleries on SoHo programming and worked with critics from publications such as Artforum, Art in America, and Artnews to amplify emerging artists who later exhibited at the Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Stedelijk Museum, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. During the 1990s the museum partnered with curators associated with the Venice Biennale, Documenta, and the Biennale of Sydney while responding to cultural debates involving figures like Marina Abramović, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, and Matthew Barney. In the 2000s, leadership transitions linked the museum to networks including the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and philanthropic bodies such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Kulturstiftung des Bundes. Recent decades saw collaborations with universities such as Columbia University, New York University, Pratt Institute, and School of Visual Arts while staging projects alongside the Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Architecture and Building

The museum's current building, completed in 2007, was designed by the Tokyo-based firm SANAA and engineered in consultation with firms linked to projects like the Centre Pompidou and Guggenheim Bilbao. Located on Bowery near Chinatown and Little Italy, the stacked, rectilinear façade contrasted with neighboring landmarks such as the New York University campus and the Old Bowery Station. The architectural program referenced precedents from projects by Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, Frank Gehry, and Zaha Hadid while addressing urban planning concerns raised by organizations including the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The building contains gallery spaces, a performance space, and public forums comparable to venues at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, Juilliard School, and cultural centers like the Asia Society.

Collections and Exhibitions

Although primarily a non-collecting institution, the museum has organized retrospectives and thematic shows featuring artists and curators associated with institutions such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Biennial, the Tate Modern, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Exhibitions have highlighted artists including Ai Weiwei, Yayoi Kusama, Kerry James Marshall, Shirin Neshat, Isa Genzken, Kara Walker, Rachel Harrison, Ellen Gallagher, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Olafur Eliasson, Dan Flavin, Adrian Piper, Pipilotti Rist, Michael Rakowitz, Yoko Ono, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Isaac Julien, Maya Lin, Cildo Meireles, Tania Bruguera, Hito Steyerl, Tarek Atoui, Ghada Amer, Zanele Muholi, Julie Mehretu, Glenn Ligon, Carsten Höller, Gillian Wearing, John Akomfrah, Sterling Ruby, Danh Vo, Monica Bonvicini, Tino Sehgal, Raqs Media Collective, Suzanne Lacy, William Kentridge, Kader Attia, Anish Kapoor, Takashi Murakami, Mira Schendel, Roy Lichtenstein, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Bridget Riley, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Catherine Opie, Nan Goldin, Sarah Sze, and Thomas Hirschhorn. The museum has mounted projects addressing themes found in shows at the Venice Biennale, the São Paulo Art Biennial, and the Gwangju Biennale while publishing catalogues in collaboration with presses like Phaidon Press, Rizzoli, Taschen, and MIT Press.

Programs and Education

Public programs have included artist talks, symposia, and workshops involving participants from institutions such as Columbia University School of the Arts, Yale School of Art, Princeton University, Harvard University, New School, Barnard College, Cooper Union, and Hunter College. The museum's education initiatives worked with community organizations like Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Henry Street Settlement, City Lore, and school partnerships tied to the New York City Department of Education and arts nonprofits such as Creative Time and Public Art Fund. Residency and fellowship programs have collaborated with the Guggenheim Fellowship network, the MacArthur Fellows Program, and artist-run spaces including P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and Flux Factory.

Governance and Funding

Governance structures are typical of nonprofit cultural institutions, with a board linked to trustees from collectors and patrons connected to MoMA PS1, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ford Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and international funders such as the Japan Foundation. Directors and curators have included alumni of programs at the National Endowment for the Arts, the Getty Foundation, and the Henry Luce Foundation. Funding sources have combined ticketing, memberships, private donations, corporate partnerships with entities like Sotheby's, Christie's, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and in-kind support from galleries including Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, and White Cube.

Reception and Impact

The museum's role in advancing careers has been noted in critical discourse across media outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Artforum, ArtReview, Frieze, and Hyperallergic. Its influence intersects with debates involving cultural policy from bodies like the NEA and public humanities initiatives led by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art. The institution's exhibitions and public programs have been cited in scholarship from universities including New York University, Columbia University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, and Princeton University, and have informed curatorial practice at museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul.

Category:Contemporary art museums in New York City