New Museum
New York, USA · Since 1977 · Built 2007 (SANAA tower), 2026 expansion · Designed by SANAA and OMA

After two years behind construction walls, the New Museum is back on the Bowery with a second building that almost doubles its size and changes how the museum meets the street. The original SANAA-designed stack of white boxes is now paired with a new OMA building next door, and the two are stitched together so you move between them as if they were one organism rather than an “old” and “new” wing. From the sidewalk, the facade shifts from opaque to more transparent depending on light, so at night the museum glows and you can see people moving through the atrium and bridges inside.

Instead of just adding more white cubes, the expansion builds in more spaces for production and gathering: artist studios, a permanent home for NEW INC, a 74-seat forum, and an enlarged Sky Room with views across downtown. The new entrance plaza at Bowery and Prince opens up the corner and makes the museum feel less like a sealed tower and more like a public node where you can linger even before you step inside.

About the Museum

The New Museum has always been about “new art and new ideas,” founded in 1977 as an alternative space for living artists and voices that did not easily fit older institutional collections. Over time it has become a kind of cultural lab as much as a museum, known for survey exhibitions of emerging artists, city-wide triennials, and its early embrace of technology and cross-disciplinary projects.

This reopening marks a shift in scale: with roughly 60,000 new square feet and nearly doubled gallery space, the museum can now run large, museum-wide shows while still keeping room for more experimental projects, residencies, and education programs. Studios, flexible program spaces, and the “brain” at the top of the building concentrate making, discussion, and research in one visible stack, making it clear that the institution wants to be a place where work is produced, not just displayed.

Reopens to the public: March 21, 2026

• Usual hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 11:00–18:00; pay-what-you-wish Thursday evenings, 19:00–21:00

Estimated visit time: 1.30 – 3 hours

Admission

• General admission : $25

• Seniors (65+ with valid ID): $22

• Students: $19

• Youth 18 and under: Free
  
  Free or reduced admission is also available through partner programs https://www.newmuseum.org/visit/free-admission/
  
  

*Admissions and opening hours are subject to change, please check the museum’s official website before your visit.