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New Museum Reopens With OMA Expansion, Doubling Space and Debuting 'New Humans'

The OMA-designed building recasts the non-collecting museum as a producer through added studios, an incubator home, flexible galleries.

Overview

  • An $82 million, 60,000-square-foot addition opens to the public on Saturday, doubling the New Museum’s footprint to 120,000 square feet after four years of construction.
  • Designed by OMA’s Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas with executive architect Cooper Robertson, the new structure functions as a counterpart to the 2007 SANAA building, linked by a central atrium and a new public plaza.
  • The inaugural cross-building exhibition, “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” curated by Massimiliano Gioni, assembles works by more than 200 artists to examine technology’s reshaping of ideas of humanity.
  • New program spaces include an artist-in-residence studio, a permanent home for New Inc, expansive configurable galleries—including a column-free high-ceiling floor—a sky room, a theatre/forum, and a restaurant by Julia Sherman opening later this spring.
  • Visitor access policies include free entry on opening weekend, pay-what-you-wish Thursday evenings thereafter, and free admission for visitors under 18, with the Toby Devan Lewis Building named for the trustee whose $20 million gift led the campaign, new permanent commissions by Tschabalala Self, Klára Hosnedlová, and Sarah Lucas, and director Lisa Phillips set to step down next month.