Installed on the Studio Museum's facade, David Hammons’s black, red, and green Untitled flag (2004) is inspired by the pan-African flag adopted by Marcus Garvey in the 1920s. The flag, which was first raised outside the Museum in 2004, serves as an emblem for the institution and its mission as a champion for artists of African descent.

Glenn Ligon’s Give Us a Poem (2007) will hang in the Museum’s new lobby, welcoming visitors into the building. Initially created as a site-specific installation for the lobby of the Museum’s previous building, Ligon’s sculpture translates an improvised phrase by Muhammad Ali into flashing neon.

Houston E. Conwill’s seven bronze time capsules, The Joyful Mysteries (1984), contain confidential written testaments by seven distinguished Black Americans: Romare Bearden, Lerone Bennett Jr., Richard G. Hatcher, A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., Eleanor Holmes Norton, Toni Morrison, and Leontyne Price. Originally buried in the sculpture garden of the Museum’s previous home on August 12, 1984, the work will be reinstalled on the second floor of the Museum’s new building. Per the artist's request, the capsules will be opened in September 2034, fifty years after their creation.