- The New Museum is unlike most museums…there’s no permanent collection; the museum refreshes its collection every ten years so it’s truly contemporary.
- That unique vision comes from Marcia Tucker, who founded the New Museum in 1977.
- Tucker wanted to give the same attention to new work by contemporary, living artists that older works are afforded at traditional museums.
- Given the museum’s devotion to all things “New,” Tucker saw the space as a “Laboratory.”
- That’s true to this day: In addition to showcasing art, the New Museum hosts an incubator, New INC, which explores the connection between technology and contemporary art, and operates a think tank, Ideas City, where artists and urban planners consider the future of cities!
- And the New Museum has a history of breaking ground, for example:
- In 1980, The New Museum pioneered the High School Art Program, one of the first museum education programs in the US, to connect at-risk youth with contemporary art.
- In 1982, the museum presented “Extended Sensibilities: Homosexual Presence in Contemporary Art,” the first exhibit to celebrate the contributions of gay and lesbian artists.
- Speaking of breaking ground…
- The museum will break ground on a brand new addition, adjacent to its current space, in 2020.
- Rem Koolhaas’s architecture firm OMA designed the new space.
- The museum will break ground on a brand new addition, adjacent to its current space, in 2020.
