Studio Museum in Harlem Opens to the Public on Saturday, November 15

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HARLEM, NEW YORK, NY, November 6, 2025 – The Studio Museum in Harlem, the nexus for art by artists of African descent nationally and internationally, will open its new home to the public on Saturday, November 15, with a celebratory Community Day. Designed by Adjaye Associates with Cooper Robertson as executive architect, the seven-floor, 82,000-square-foot building is the first home in the Studio Museum’s fifty-seven-year history created expressly for the institution’s mission and program. Made possible by a holistic campaign that to date has raised more than $300 million, the new building enables the Studio Museum to elevate its service to a growing and diverse audience, provide enhanced educational opportunities for people of all ages, expand its program of world-renowned exhibitions, and strengthen its trailblazing Artist-in-Residence program.

On November 15 admission will be free for all, as the Studio Museum invites the public to explore its inaugural exhibitions, drop into art-making workshops, and enjoy performances, games, giveaways, and DJ sets throughout the day. Celebrations will continue on Sunday, November 16, when the Museum will begin its weekly day of free programming for all ages, Studio Sundays, which feature art-making workshops, guided family tours, gallery talks, and storytime sessions.

Thelma Golden, Ford Foundation Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, said, “With deep gratitude to our visionary founders, who dared to create the Studio Museum amid the ferment of 1968, and to all the Trustees, staff, campaign supporters, artists, curators, educators, architects, community members, and partners in the City of New York who have made the Studio Museum into what it is today, we welcome Harlem and all the world into the home we have dreamed of having. Our mission as champions of artists of African descent and their practices is as urgent today as it ever was and is made all the more possible because of our remarkable new building.”

Raymond J. McGuire, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Studio Museum in Harlem, said, “This magnificent building says to the world: Harlem matters. Black art matters. Black institutions matter. This new chapter was not inevitable. It was earned through decades of vision, stewardship, and belief and made possible by the generosity of a community of visionary public and private donors, including our extraordinary Trustees who drove our campaign forward; our partners in the Office of the Mayor, the Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York City Council, and the Office of the Manhattan Borough President; and, all of the artists, individuals, companies, and foundations that stepped forward to support the campaign.”

Laurie Cumbo, New York City Cultural Affairs Commissioner, said, “The Studio Museum in Harlem is a landmark, a hub, and a center of gravity not just for New York City's cultural landscape, but for Black art and artists around the world. With the opening of their extraordinary new home on 125th Street, our city has a new landmark for art, conversation, and community. The Department of Cultural Affairs is proud of its major investment in this new building and in Studio Museum's long-term work as a member of our Cultural Institutions Group. I can't wait to see you all at the new Studio Museum in Harlem.”

José Tavarez, President, Bank of America New York City, said, “In our tradition of serving New York City and its communities, Bank of America is honored to sponsor the opening and inaugural exhibitions of the Studio Museum in Harlem. We are thrilled to be part of the moment when so many people come together to celebrate Harlem.”

Inaugural Exhibitions and Commissions
The new Studio Museum in Harlem will open with:

• A major presentation of the work of Tom Lloyd, the innovative artist whose practice was the subject of the Studio Museum’s inaugural exhibition in 1968. Based on extensive new scholarship and intensive conservation work, Tom Lloyd will explore the artist’s contributions to the interplay of art and technology, and will be accompanied by the first publication dedicated to the artist.
• The first installment of From Now: A Collection in Context, a rotating installation of works from the Museum’s distinguished permanent collection, which today holds nearly nine thousand artworks. Works will span from the 1800s to the present—highlighting more than two hundred years of artistic achievements by artists of African descent—and will range from those newly acquired to those that have been recently conserved or not shown for decades.
• A presentation of new works on paper by more than one hundred alumni of the Artist-in-Residence program. From the Studio: Fifty-Eight Years of Artists in Residence will place intergenerational artists in conversation with each other while paying tribute to this foundational program of the Museum, which has nurtured artists of African descent for more than half a century.
• To Be a Place, a presentation of archival photographs and ephemera of the institution’s history, offering visitors an opportunity to discover the host of exhibitions, events, and programs that defined the Studio Museum throughout nearly sixty years of cultural and political change.

During the inaugural year, newly commissioned site-specific artworks will include: 

• Untitled (heliotrope) (2025), a sonic sculptural installation by Camille Norment composed of brass tubing and featuring a chorus of voices, offering a sensory experience for visitors as they traverse the Museum’s terrace staircase.
• Harlem Is a Myth, a wall-mounted, metal-based installation by Christopher Myers in the Museum’s new Education Workshop that envisions an intergenerational community of hybrid figures gathered in a fantastical landscape.

Artworks that have become synonymous with the Studio Museum and that have been reinstalled are:

• David Hammons’s red, black, and green Untitled flag (2004), which is inspired by the Pan-African flag, designed by Marcus Garvey in the 1920s for the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League.
• Glenn Ligon’s Give Us a Poem (2007), a wall sculpture that translates an improvised poem by Muhammad Ali into flashing neon.
• Houston E. Conwill’s seven bronze time capsules, The Joyful Mysteries (1984), containing confidential written testaments by seven distinguished Black Americans, which will be opened in September 2034, fifty years after their creation.

The building is populated with furniture by Black creatives, including designs by Ini Archibong, Stephen Burks, Mac Collins, Charles O. Job, Peter Mabeo, Michael Puryear, and Marcus Samuelsson. The building will also feature custom-made tables constructed using beams from the Museum’s former home, designed by the collaborative Sefako Tolu, of Sefako Ketosugbo and Tolu Odunfa Dragone.

Architectural Design
The new Studio Museum provides state-of-the-art galleries, an expansive lobby, flexible program spaces, and a dedicated Education Workshop, which together foster deeper engagement with visitors of all ages and elevate the Museum’s service to artists, museumgoers, and the Harlem community. Space for exhibitions and the Artist-in-Residence program has more than doubled, and indoor and outdoor public space have increased by sixty percent. 

The architectural design takes its inspiration from the brownstones, churches, and bustling sidewalks of Harlem. The masonry-framed windows of Harlem’s apartment buildings are echoed in the composition of a facade with windows of varying sizes and proportions. The neighborhood’s churches find a counterpart in a top-lit interior gallery with ample wall area for installing large-scale artworks and a central stair that provides lookout points from the landings. A set of glass doors, which can be opened in different configurations, welcomes people to descending steps that evoke the ubiquitous stoops of Harlem’s brownstones. The steps can be used as benches for watching lectures, performances, and films presented on the building’s lower level—or simply for relaxing in informal gatherings.

The new facility also includes a rooftop terrace with striking views of the surrounding area, with a dynamic landscape designed by the Harlem-based firm Studio Zewde. Conceived as a space for gathering, reflection, and engagement, the terrace features native plantings and sculptural seating that frame striking panoramic views of Manhattan. On the Museum’s lower level, a café operated by the local family-owned restaurant Settepani will further enhance the Museum’s commitment to organizations and businesses in its neighborhood.

New Studio Store Collections and Publications
To celebrate the opening of the Studio Museum's new home, Studio Store will debut a range of capsule collections over the course of the inaugural year, highlighting the Museum’s legacy, mission, and community with new products by Black creators and businesses.

Launching on November 15, Studio Store’s first capsule collection will include apparel, accessories, and home goods made in collaboration with the artist Glenn Ligon. Based on an original commissioned drawing of the artist’s site-specific sculpture Give Us a Poem (2007), the Give Us a Poem Collection commemorates a work that is emblematic of the Museum.

Two new publications that augment the Museum’s inaugural exhibitions and installations will also join Studio Store. A new handbook of the permanent collection—the first in fifteen years—Meaning Matter Memory: Selections from the Studio Museum in Harlem Collection highlights works by more than two hundred and sixty artists, including Derrick Adams, Emma Amos, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Elizabeth Catlett, Nick Cave, Samuel Fosso, Theaster Gates, Cy Gavin, Barkley L. Hendricks, Arthur Jafa, Simone Leigh,
Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu, Gordon Parks, Martin Puryear, Betye Saar, Augusta Savage, Tschabalala Self, Lorna Simpson, Kara Walker, and Carrie Mae Weems. Published by Phaidon and designed by WeShouldDoItAll, Meaning Matter Memory features new texts by more than one hundred contributors, illuminating the impact of the Studio Museum’s collection on art history and the broader cultural landscape.

The exhibition Tom Lloyd is accompanied by the first catalogue on the pioneering artist, featuring an exclusive selection of never-before-seen images that chronicle his career. Designed by Miko McGinty Inc. and copublished with Gregory R. Miller & Co., the catalogue features new essays by Studio Museum Curator Connie H. Choi, conservator Reinhard Bek, art historian Krista Thompson, former Studio Museum Senior Curatorial Assistant Habiba Hopson, and artists Paul Stephen Benjamin, Nikita Gale, and Glenn Ligon.

These products and more will be available in-person at the Museum and online at store.studiomuseum.org.

Support for the Studio Museum in Harlem
The Studio Museum’s Creating Space campaign, which supports the design and construction of its new home and ensures the institution’s long-term sustainability, has raised more than $300 million. The campaign has enjoyed broad-based and ongoing support from the Museum’s Board of Trustees, the City of New York, and individuals, foundations, and corporate partners, testifying to the widespread appreciation for the vitality and necessity of the Studio Museum’s mission.

Bank of America is the Studio Museum in Harlem’s lead opening and inaugural exhibitions sponsor. Major support for the inaugural exhibitions and publications has been provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.

Funding for Tom Lloyd is provided by the Holly Peterson Foundation and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, with publication support from Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.

The Artist-in-Residence alumni installation is supported by a grant from the Robert Lehman Foundation. Inaugural artist commissions by Camille Norment and Christopher Myers are supported by funds from the Studio Museum in Harlem’s Acquisition Committee and Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins. Additional support for Camille Norment’s installation is provided by Dawanna Williams Wedderburn, and the Norwegian Consulate General in New York.

Major support for Community Day is provided by MetLife Foundation and the Movado Group Foundation.

Generous support for Studio Sundays is provided by Art Bridges.

Support for the collection handbook, Meaning Matter Memory: Selections from the Studio Museum in Harlem Collection, is thanks in part to the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Additional funding is generously provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.

Visiting the Studio Museum in Harlem
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 will be open Wednesday through Sunday, from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, with extended hours on Friday and Saturday, 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, except for the Museum’s first public day, November 15, when it will open at 11:00 am.

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.

About Adjaye Associates
Since establishing Adjaye Associates in 2000, David Adjaye has crafted a global team that is multicultural and stimulated by the broadest possible cultural discourse. The practice has studios in Accra, London, and New York, with work spanning the globe. The practice’s most well-known commission to date, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), opened in 2016 on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and was named “Cultural Event of the Year” by the New York Times.

The firm has received widespread recognition for its contributions to architecture. Adjaye was announced the winner of the 2021 RIBA Royal Gold Medal, considered one of the highest honors in British architecture, for significant contributions to the field internationally. In his award citation, the 2021 RIBA Honours Committee explained, “Through his work as an architect, Sir David Adjaye speaks confidently across cultures, disciplines, politics, and continents. His body of work is global and local, finely attuned as it reflects and responds to context and community, climate, and culture.”

About Cooper Robertson
Cooper Robertson is a New York–based architecture and urban design firm with a diverse body of work spanning all scales. From buildings to public spaces to cities, the firm is recognized nationally for design excellence with more than 150 awards for projects integrating architecture and urban design.

The firm’s renowned cultural portfolio, led by Partner Erin Flynn, RA, and Bruce Davis, AIA, includes the reinvention and expansion of more than fifty-five museums internationally. Acknowledged as one of the foremost museum planning and design firms in the country, Cooper Robertson has completed new buildings for the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and the Gateway Arch Museum, as well as strategic planning and visioning for the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the J. Paul Getty Trust.

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. For information, visit studiomuseum.org.

Media Contact
Sasha Cordingley
Studio Museum in Harlem
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Meagan Jones
Polskin Arts
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