Seven years after shutting its doors, the Studio Museum in Harlem, led by longstanding director Thelma Golden, is opening its first purpose-built home on November 15. The new building occupies the same site on 125th Street as the museum’s former premises.
The museum has promoted artists of African descent in the “capital of Black America” for six decades, maintaining strong ties to the local Upper Manhattan community since its inception.
Designed by Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye (though his involvement has been downplayed), the new 82,000 sq ft structure is a monumental edifice of dark concrete and glass. The building’s design was inspired by the “brownstones, churches, and bustling sidewalks of Harlem.” Adjaye’s abstraction of these street fixtures in the façade composition is elegant yet impersonal. The new building is an effective companion to the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building across the street, and together, they tower over the intersection of 125th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard like two resolute totems.
The building’s entrance leads into a stepped public space that’s been likened to an “inverted stoop,” welcoming passersby on the street into the museum. Adjaye’s design positions the building as a free-to-use third space for art lovers and the local community on 125th Street, although the steps inside have a corporate gleam that’s colder than the warm ruggedness of a traditional stoop.
The building’s opening exhibition will feature the work of African American artist Tom Lloyd—an unsurprising choice, since his light sculptures also anchored the museum’s inaugural exhibition in 1968. Several artists from the museum’s flagship residency program will also display new works at the reopening.
The Studio Museum’s reopening is the latest in a series of glitzy museum building unveilings this year, from the revamped Frick Collection to the Met’s Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. With community-focused opening festivities and a capital campaign that raised $300 million for the building and its future operations, the Studio Museum appears poised to enter an exciting new era. Although it’s gained a world-class facility befitting its global influence, the museum’s reopening exhibitions and its community-focused initiatives show that it hasn’t lost sight of its roots.
Fast facts: The Studio Museum in Harlem
Studio Museum’s comeback delivers on a rare promise: institutional scale with neighborhood heart intact.
- The Studio Museum in Harlem, 144 West 125th Street, New York City
- Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Fridays and Saturdays 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
