Earlier this week, the New Museum hosted its annual press breakfast to announce next year’s exhibition schedule and unveil several new initiatives.
The event, held in the museum’s sky room, included breakfast from the Hester Street Fair team; as you might recall, HSF vendors are now running the cafe in the lobby. Associate Director Massimiliano Gioni previewed some of the big shows coming up in the months ahead, including a solo exhibition by British artist Chris Ofili and a new performance piece and video installation from Rajnar Kjartansson in May. Next fall, the museum will present a comprehensive exhibition of Arab art. You can see details of key shows and programs here.
Director Lisa Phillips announced that the Keith Haring Foundation has awarded the museum a $500,000 grant in support of its teen and family education programs. “Eighty percent of our education and community programs serve people from the surrounding neighborhoods of the Lower East Side, Chinatown, and the East Village,” she said. Johanna Burton will become the Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Engagement (she was already running the programs but gains a new title). The museum also announced plans to revive its Documentary Sources in Contemporary Art publication, an influential series that has been on hiatus for several years.
While it wasn’t a focus of the briefing, the New Museum recently announced plans to create its own incubator in a building it owns next door to the main building on the Bowery. The incubator is expected to include up to 70 emerging designers, architects, tech developers and artists.
How about they cancel the horrid Ideas waste of $ and start with just a simple paint job on their building next door??? That facade is bringing down the entire block, and that’s hard to do. The Mission by comparison makes that building look like crap. But hey, why would they do anything that supports the neighborhood (like exhibiting some of the Bowery’s terrific artists), when it’s so much easier to bring in horde of tourists and their garbage?