Studio Museum in Harlem Announces First-Ever Publication of its History

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HARLEM, NEW YORK, NY, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2026 — This fall, as the Museum celebrates the final months of its inaugural year and prepares for its sixtieth anniversary in 2028, the Studio Museum in Harlem will publish Studio Museum in Harlem: A History, the first book in the institution's lifetime that details its establishment and traces the organization’s evolution from 1968 to today. Bringing together oral histories from the Museum’s founding figures; essays by leading scholars, curators, and artists; and a trove of never-before-seen archival imagery, this dynamic and comprehensive historical record charts the organization’s catalytic role as a champion for artists of African descent and outlines the lasting impact the Museum has had on the art landscape as a whole. Now available for preorder online and in-store at Studio Store, Studio Museum in Harlem: A History will be published on October 27 of this year.

Edited by Romi Crawford, Studio Museum in Harlem: A History provides renewed context to an institution that last November marked a momentous milestone with the opening of the first building created expressly for its mission and programs. Commemorating that watershed was Meaning Matter Memory: Selections from the Studio Museum in Harlem Collection, a new collection handbook that highlights works by more than 260 artists and documents the influence of the Museum’s growing permanent collection, which today holds over nine-thousand artworks. Studio Museum in Harlem: A History rounds out Meaning Matter Memory’s focus on iconic collection artworks by concentrating on the ideas and individuals that have shaped the institution. Featuring reflections, memories, and analyses that illuminate the inner workings of this storied Museum, its relationship to Harlem and its place on 125th Street’s cultural corridor; and its evolving role in art and culture, Studio Museum in Harlem: A History is an unparalleled, definitive resource on the history and legacy of the place “Where Black Art Lives.”

Thelma Golden, Ford Foundation Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, said, “Our first year in our new building has served as an unprecedented time of reflection for me, one that has been guided by the collective aspirations of those who inaugurated this Museum in 1968, as well as those who have had a hand in molding this institution since. It only felt appropriate that we mark this era with the first-ever comprehensive record of the Studio Museum’s ongoing history. Thanks to the sustained determination of so many vital figures, Studio Museum in Harlem: A History, does exactly that. The process of putting this publication together was particularly thrilling, as it unveiled new details about the Museum’s past, evidence of our story as one that is constantly evolving rather than representing fixed ideas or narratives of art history.”

Romi Crawford, Professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and editor of Studio Museum in Harlem: A History, said, “The story of the Studio Museum is ultimately one that divulges the human will to traverse social boundaries and triumph. So, it is a book infused with human touch, voice, tone, and emotion, in addition to archive material. Adjacent to this concern was a looming question about the potential to produce a history attentive to a range of takes, accounts, and sources of information. How might these live together in close proximity, variously complementary and competing as reminders of the un-smoothness of history. And while the book offers the first staging of the Studio Museum archive, it is not conceived as a closed system or final thought. Like the Museum, it is intended to make room and create an opening for next steps and additional voices.”

Studio Museum in Harlem: A History is distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London, and includes contributions by Naomi Beckwith, Dawoud Bey, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Susan E. Cahan, Mary Schmidt Campbell, Connie H. Choi, Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Bridget R. Cooks, Huey Copeland, Romi Crawford, Julie Dash, Gordon J. Davis, Cheryl Finley, Malik Gaines, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Thelma Golden, Sandra Grymes, Daonne Huff, Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Yelena Keller, Christine Y. Kim, George Knox, Vita Kurland, Thomas Lax, Raymond J. McGuire, Kobena Mercer, Legacy Russell, Charles Shorter, Lowery Stokes Sims, Franklin Sirmans, Jenni Sorkin, Akili Tommasino, Meg Whiteford, Zoé Whitley, William T. Williams, and Deborah Willis.

About the Studio Museum in Harlem
Founded in 1968 by a diverse group of artists, community activists, and philanthropists, the Studio Museum in Harlem is internationally known for its catalytic role in promoting the work of artists of African descent. The Studio Museum’s new home, situated at its longtime location on West 125th Street, opened to the public on November 15, 2025. Designed by Adjaye Associates with Corgan (formerly Cooper Robertson) serving as executive architect, the building—the first created expressly for the institution’s program—enables the Studio Museum to better serve a growing and diverse audience, provide additional educational opportunities for people of all ages, expand its program of world-renowned exhibitions, effectively display its singular collection, and strengthen its trailblazing Artist-in-Residence program.

For more information, visit studiomuseum.org.

Visitor Information
The Studio Museum in Harlem is located at 144 West 125th Street, between Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard (Seventh Avenue).

The Studio Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, with extended hours on Friday, from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm.

The Museum is open to Members on Saturday mornings, from 10:00 to 11:00 am, before the galleries open to the public.

Admission rates are offered as a suggestion, with Sundays free for everyone. Suggested rates are $16 for adults and $9 for seniors (sixty-five years and over), students, and visitors with disabilities (care partners are free). Admission is free for children sixteen and under.

Tickets to the Studio Museum may be purchased online at studiomuseum.org/visit or at the Museum.

Media Contact
Sasha Cordingley
Studio Museum in Harlem
[email protected]