New Museum to expand its NYC footprint
New York City's New Museum has raised $43m towards its $80m target, to fund its expansion into the building next door. One of the smallest fledgling institutions in the growing family of contemporary art museums in New York, this small organisation has big ambitions; "it's about trying to do things that museums haven't done or maybe yet imagined." The museum's current Bowery expansion plan would enable it to host larger exhibitions and experiment with new ideas. The funding would not only increase its endowment threefold, it would also pay for its business incubator NEW INC and its Ideas City, which brings together planners, artists, and politicians to discuss future cities. What makes the New Museum different from its contemporaries is that, aside from a few smaller works, it does not hold a permanent collection, however, this funding campaign may change that.



“We’ve known for a long time that we wanted an expansion, but we’ve been thinking about what an expansion means for a museum like this,” said Ms. Phillips, who has overseen the institution for 17 years. “We own the building next door, and it just makes sense to use it. But it was also about thinking about ways to create a parallel structure there, to make something that’s different and a counterpoint to this building.”

In the short term, the museum plans to renovate its neighbor at 231 Bowery — which once housed a restaurant supply company but before that was raw studio space for seminal New York artists like James Rosenquist and Tom Wesselmann — and to break through to connect to its current building, at 235 Bowery, designed by the Japanese firm Sanaa. Joining those buildings would increase the museum’s footprint for exhibition space, storage and offices to a little more than 100,000 square feet, from 58,000 square feet now.

“Our building is just too small for what we’re doing,” James-Keith Brown, president of the museum’s board, said. Asked if eventual plans to demolish the next-door building and erect something more ambitious in its place were on the table, Mr. Brown said: “I wouldn’t say that yet. It’s not not on the table, but it’s not something that we’re pursuing right now.”

The museum is unusual among New York contemporary institutions in that it does not have a permanent collection, beyond a small number of works that it has kept, a decision that its founder, Marcia Tucker, believed would keep it creatively and philosophically nimble. Especially since its move to the Bowery, the museum has focused on artists and works not widely seen in New York, such as contemporary art from the Middle East, from former Soviet republics and from self-taught artists. It has also emphasized art by women. (The six exhibitions now on view are all by female artists.)

The building at 231 Bowery currently houses a business incubator, New INC, founded by the museum in 2014, the first such entrepreneur-meets-artist venture by a visual art institution. That project was created partly as a way to explore the growing connections between technology and contemporary art. The museum also needs more room to house support staff for Ideas City, a program begun in 2011 that brings together urban planners, artists, political leaders and others to think creatively about the future of cities. (This year the program is focusing on Detroit and Athens.)