Another piece of the Essex Crossing mega-project is ready for its closeup. The International Center of Photography (ICP) will officially open its new 40,000 square foot museum and educational center on the Lower East Side next Saturday, Jan. 25.
On this day, ICP will be hosting a community open house at 79 Essex St., right across from the new Essex Market. For the past several years, the venerable institution’s school has been located uptown while its galleries were situated in a mostly underground space on the Bowery. At Essex Crossing, they’ll now be reunited. The center includes exhibition galleries, media labs, classrooms, darkrooms, an equipment room, and shooting studios, as well as a research library with more than 20,000 books, a gift shop and public event spaces. There will be a cafe featuring pastries and sandwiches from Café D’Avignon and La Colombe coffee.
Via a press release, ICP just announced its four opening exhibitions:
- Tyler Mitchell: I Can Make You Feel Good—the photographer and filmmaker’s first US solo exhibition and the US premiere of several photographs, video, and installation works exploring new ways of interpreting Black identity today
- CONTACT HIGH: A Visual History of Hip-Hop—a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how iconic portraits came to be through four decades of contact sheets from major photographers documenting the hip-hop movement
- James Coupe: Warriors—a new series of moving image works that algorithmically categorize museum visitors and, using deepfake technology, inserts them into specific scenes from the 1979 cult classic film The Warriors
- The Lower East Side: Selections from the ICP Collection—drawn from ICP’s rich holdings of mid-20th-century works, it examines the role of images in enduring narratives about the Lower East Side.
General admission for the museum is $16, although it’s free if you’re 18 or younger. Seniors (62 and Over), students (with valid ID), military and visitors with disabilities pay $12; SNAP/EBT card holders pay $3. On opening day, admission will be free from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. You can claim a timed entry ticket here.
ICP paid $29 million to purchase its new space at Essex Crossing.
