Studio Museum Sets Opening Date for New Building in November

The Studio Museum in Harlem will open its long-awaited new building on Saturday, November 15, with a Community Day celebration.

The Studio Museum has been closed since 2018, when it tore down its former building to make way for a new one, designed by Adjaye Associates. It was originally slated to reopen in 2022.

The museum’s new home consists of 82,000 square feet across seven floors, with 14,000 square feet dedicated to exhibition space. Its acclaimed Artist-in-Residence program will have 2,100 square feet of studio and lounge space, while 1,800 square feet will be dedicated to education spaces. The museum will also open a Studio Store that will sell publications, as well as products by Black-owned businesses.

“As our historic homecoming approaches, I am reflecting on the transformative vision of the artists, supporters, and community members who have helped us shape this pivotal moment in our legacy,” Studio Museum director and chief curator Thelma Golden said in a statement. “Our breathtaking new building is an invaluable space and a tribute to the Museum’s mission and the vitality of artists of African descent. I am thrilled to welcome everyone back to a reimagined Studio Museum, rooted in Harlem and resonating far beyond.”

Though the Studio Museum’s physical space in Harlem has been closed for some seven years, the museum has continued to stage off-site programming and continued its residency program via a partnership with the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1.

As part of its reopening, the Studio Museum will mount four exhibitions, install two site-specific commissions, and reinstall iconic works from its collection. The most significant of these exhibitions will be a survey dedicated to Tom Lloyd, an artist known for his work in art and technology and who was the subject of the Studio Museum’s very first exhibition in 1968. The Lloyd exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog, one of two published by the museum for its reopening; the second will be a new volume on its permanent collection, titled Meaning Matter Memory: Selections from the Studio Museum in Harlem Collection.

The Studio Museum will also mount an exhibition of works on paper by past artists in residence; the first installment of a rotating permanent collection hang, drawing from its holdings of nearly 9,000 objects; and a presentation looking at its history via archival photographs and ephemera. Camille Norment and Christopher Myers will create new work for the museum’s terraced staircase and its Education Workshop, respectively. David Hammons’s red, black, and green flag will once again be installed on the museum’s facade, while Glenn Ligon’s Give Us a Poem (2007) will head to the lobby and Houston E. Conwill’s The Joyful Mysteries (1984) will be on view on the second floor.

Along with the new building, the Studio Museum has also changed its hours of operation, now being open from 11 am to 6 pm, Wednesdays through Sundays, with extended hours until 9 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Free admission will be offered on Sundays, as part of the museum’s Studio Sunday program, while a suggested admission price of $16 for adults and $9 for seniors, students, and visitors with disabilities (care partners are free) at other times. Children 16 and under can enter the museum for free.

Since its founding nearly 60 years ago, the Studio Museum has become an influential organization known for its advocacy for showcasing the wealth of artistic contributions by African American, Black, African, Afro-Latinx, and African diaspora artists, which at the time were not being show in mainstream museums. Its reputation has achieved new heights under the directorship of Golden, who has lead the museum since 2005, in what ARTnews has previously dubbed “The Studio Museum in Harlem Effect.”

In a statement, Studio Museum board chair Raymond J. McGuire said, “Over the past half-century, the Studio Museum has catalyzed a cultural transformation that is as sweeping as it is profound. We thank all of the members of the outstanding public-private partnership who have made possible our impending opening: the City of New York, the Trustees and philanthropists who have been with us since we initiated this project, and the new generation of patrons who have stepped forward so generously to join us on this journey.”