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The MoMA Ends (For Four Months Of Renovation & Expansion)
By
Jen Carlson
Published Feb 5, 2019
Modified Feb 5, 2019
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Feb 5, 2019
Modified Feb 5, 2019
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The Museum of Modern Art has announced that they will be shutting down MoMA for four months starting on June 15th, as they enter the final phase of a $400 million expansion and reconfiguration. According to a press release the museum sent out this morning, the work will bring more than 40,000 square feet to the existing space, and enable them to "exhibit significantly more art in new and interdisciplinary ways."
More specifically, according to the NY Times, this "additional space will allow MoMA to focus new attention on works by women, Latinos, Asians, African-Americans and other overlooked artists like Shigeru Onishi, a Japanese experimental photographer, or Hervé Télémaque, a Haitian-born painter who is now 81." They added this is "an acknowledgment that there is no single or complete history of modern and contemporary art and that many of MoMA’s holdings have historically been overlooked."
MoMA highlighted other new features coming later this year, including The Studio, which will be "in the heart of the Museum [and] feature live programming and performances that react to, question, and challenge histories of modern art and the current cultural moment." They will also introduce an "innovative second floor Platform for education [which] will invite visitors to connect with art that explores new ideas about the present, past, and future," as well as "street-level galleries, free and open to all on the expanded ground floor." They hope these free galleries "will better connect the Museum to New York City and bring art closer to people on the streets of Midtown."
As for the displayed works, they will be rotated more frequently—every six to nine months, with the museum "[abandoning] the discipline-based display system it has used for eight decades," according to the Times. Museum Director Glenn D. Lowry explains, "Inspired by Alfred Barr’s original vision to be an experimental museum in New York, the real value of this expansion is not just more space, but space that allows us to rethink the experience of art in the Museum."
The expanded campus will open on October 21st this year, and it will do so with new hours: opening at 10 a.m., and staying open until 9 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month.
Tagged
expansion
moma
museum of metropolitan art
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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