NYC's Studio Museum, Champion of Black Artists, Will Reopen Next Year
The Harlem institution has been closed since 2018 for a multimillion-dollar expansion project.
After years of construction delays, the Studio Museum in Harlem plans to open its new West 125th Street home next fall, the institution announced today, October 8. Coordinated with its long-anticipated opening, the museum will present the work of the late sculptor and community activist Tom Lloyd, harkening back to the artist’s solo exhibition Electronic Refractions II spotlighted in its 1968 opening in a second-floor Fifth Avenue rental.
Founded by a group of artists, activists, and philanthropists looking to combat the institutional racism that excluded Black artists from the mainstream arts and culture sector, the Studio Museum in Harlem has been closed to the public since 2018 for renovations. The much-needed expansion project, which will more than double the institution’s exhibition and public spaces, is financed by a capital fundraising campaign that has now increased from $250 million to $300 million “to ensure future sustainability,” the museum announced today.
The campaign has now achieved more than $285 million spanning construction, endowment, and operating and capital reserves, the statement said.
The project is being led by the New York-based team at Adjaye Associates in collaboration with Executive Architect Cooper Robertson. Though his namesake studio is still involved, British-Ghanaian architect David Adjaye is no longer involved in the project, according to the museum, which was among several institutions to sever ties with him last year after three women accused him of sexual assault and harassment. (Adjaye has denied the allegations, telling Hyperallergic at the time that they were “untrue.”)
Because the building’s “design vision was nearly complete” and construction was already underway, the institution decided to continue working with his New York team and Robertson, a representative for the Studio Museum said. The museum also hired the Harlem landscape design firm Studio Zewde, which is designing the new building’s roof terrace.
In addition to Lloyd’s exhibition, the museum also plans to display works throughout its public spaces, spotlighting David Hammons’s “Untitled flag” (2004) in its facade; Glenn Ligon’s neon light wall sculpture “Give Us a Poem” (2007) in the lobby; and Houston E. Conwill’s seven bronze time capsules collectively titled “Joyful Mysteries” (1984) on the second floor. More details about exhibitions, inaugural installations, and programming will be made public closer to the opening.
