New Museum

The New Museum of Contemporary Art, commonly known as the New Museum, is a museum devoted to contemporary art located at 235 Bowery in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, it is the only museum in New York City dedicated exclusively to international contemporary art. The institution has built a reputation as one of the world's most respected venues for contemporary art, distinguished by its commitment to introducing emerging artists and challenging conventional museum practice.

Marcia Tucker, previously curator of painting and sculpture at the Whitney Museum of American Art, established the New Museum in 1977 with the motto "New Art, New Ideas." Her radical vision was to create a fundamentally different kind of museum that would collaborate exclusively with contemporary artists and maintain a perpetually current collection, even proposing to sell works after ten years to keep the collection contemporary, though this was never fully implemented. During its first five years, the museum operated without a permanent exhibition space, mounting shows at various locations. In 1983, it moved to the Astor Building at 583 Broadway in SoHo, where it remained until 2001. That year, it temporarily occupied space at the Chelsea Art Museum on West 22nd Street. Lisa Phillips, also formerly of the Whitney Museum, succeeded Tucker as director in 1999. In 2003, the museum formed an affiliation with Rhizome, a leading online platform for global new media art. The museum's staff voted to unionize in January 2019, joining NewMuU-UAW Local 2110.

The New Museum's collection developed from its collaborations with exhibited artists rather than through traditional acquisition strategies. Its founding mission centered on presenting artists who had not yet received significant exposure or recognition, with an emphasis on international scope. The museum has exhibited artists from Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, China, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Germany, India, Poland, Spain, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and numerous other countries. The institution presents approximately six major exhibitions annually, including both solo and group shows. Its programming has consistently served as a platform for progressive art and concepts, earning recognition as a stronghold for avant-garde practice.

The museum's exhibition history includes significant early and career-defining shows for numerous major artists. Jeff Koons had his first solo exhibition at the New Museum in 1980, as did Keith Haring, Richard Prince, and David Hammons that same year. Other early solo exhibitions included John Baldessari (1978, retrospective), Barry Le Va (1979), Ree Morton (1980), Adrian Piper (1981), Robert Colescott (1981), Mark Tansey (1981), Tony Oursler (1981), and Bill Jensen (1983). The 1987 Ana Mendieta retrospective, organized two years after her death, received widespread attention. The South African artist William Kentridge had his first American retrospective at the museum in 2001, and Andrea Zittel was given her first major retrospective in 2006. The 2011 exhibition "Ostalgia," featuring artists from former Eastern Bloc and Soviet states, was financed by Russian oligarch Leonid Mikhelson. The exhibition "Rosemarie Trockel - A Cosmos," shown in 2012 after appearing at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, traveled to the Serpentine Gallery in London in 2013.

The museum's current building at 235 Bowery, between Stanton and Rivington Streets, opened on December 1, 2007. The seven-story, 58,700-square-foot facility was designed by the Tokyo-based firm Sejima + Nishizawa/SANAA with New York-based Gensler as executive architect. The design, a stack of white boxes, was selected for its flexibility and changeable atmosphere, corresponding to the ever-changing nature of contemporary art. In April 2008, the building was named one of the architectural New Seven Wonders of the World by Condé Nast Traveler. The building includes gallery and events space, plus a Resource Center with books and computers, and houses the New Museum Digital Archive containing 7,500 written and visual materials searchable through 4,000 artists, curators, and organizations. In 2008, the museum acquired the neighboring building at 231 Bowery. Plans for expansion, designed by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas of OMA with executive architect Cooper Robertson, were announced in 2016. The expansion, originally budgeted at $63 million and later increased, was to add seven floors and 60,000 square feet of gallery space with a glass-and-metal facade and atrium, named for donor Toby Devan Lewis. Construction began in 2022, the original building closed in March 2024, and the expansion topped out in November 2024. The museum reopened March 21, 2026, with the opening exhibition "New Humans: Memories of the Future." The expansion includes a full-service restaurant operated by Oberon Group and Julia Sherman.

The New Museum is located at 235 Bowery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The nearest New York City subway stations are Bowery on the J and Z lines and Second Avenue on the F line. The museum is owned and operated as an independent nonprofit institution. Its website is www.newmuseum.org. The museum's Digital Archive provides online access to primary sources from exhibitions, publications, andLookup programs. The expansion completed in 2026 doubled the museum's exhibition space, with the new building containing galleries on three floors, a restaurant, a bookstore, and offices.