The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has announced an October 2019 opening date of its Diller Scofidio + Renfro / Gensler-designed extension, which will offer 40,000 square feet of gallery space for the iconic institution in Midtown Manhattan. The expansion features two key additions, with the Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Studio creating a double-height space for live and experimental programming, and the Paula and James Crown Platform offering experimental, creative pace to explore ideas, questions, and processes that arise from MoMA’s collection.
The project has not been without controversy, with considerable backlash generated from the decision to demolish the American Folk Art Museum in order to make way for the new expansion. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times in January 2014, DS+R principal Liz Diller embraced the criticism, saying “we would be on the same side if we didn’t know all the details that we know.”
Inspired by Alfred Barr’s original vision to be an experimental museum in New York, the real value of this expansion is not just more space, but space that allows us to rethink the experience of art in the Museum. We have an opportunity to re-energize and expand upon our founding mission—to welcome everyone to experience MoMA as a laboratory for the study and presentation of the art of our time, across all visual arts.
-Glenn D. Lowry, David Rockefeller Director of The Museum of Modern Art
New galleries on the second, fourth, and fifth floors will offer a deeper experience of art through all mediums, with a general chronological spine uniting all three floors, and serving as a touchstone of continuity for visitors. Adopting a stance that there is no single or complete history of modern art, the museum will rotate its collection within these galleries every six to nine months.
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The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Studio will serve as a double-height space for live and experimental programming in the heart of the museum’s collection galleries, catering from performance, dance, music, moving image, sound works, and art forms not yet imagined.
Meanwhile, the Paula and James Crown Platform will explore ideas, questions, and processes from the museum’s collection. Visitors can create art, join conversations, and participate in programs that connect people more deeply with art and each other.
The museum is set to open on October 21st, 2019.
News via: MoMA
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With all the controversy surrounding Diller Scofidio +Renfro (DSR) and MoMA's decision to demolish the American Folk Art Museum to make way for expansion, DS+R has increasingly come under fire (indeed, even DS+R's democratizing move to make the MoMA's sculpture garden accessible to the public has provoked considerable ire).