{"id":20156,"date":"2026-01-13T17:51:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/01\/13\/the-new-museum-reopens-march-21-with-more-space-and-new-humans\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T17:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:51:07","slug":"the-new-museum-reopens-march-21-with-more-space-and-new-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/01\/13\/the-new-museum-reopens-march-21-with-more-space-and-new-humans\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Museum Reopens March 21 With More Space and \u201cNew Humans\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A rendering of the New Museum\u2019s expansion. Courtesy of the New Museum<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We expected it to open last fall. Then came months of silence. Now, at last, the delayed reopening of the New Museum has an official date: March 21. The 60,000-square-foot expansion\u2014designed by OMA (Shohei Shigematsu<\/a> and Rem Koolhaas<\/a>) in collaboration with executive architect Cooper Robertson\u2014will integrate seamlessly with the existing SANAA-designed flagship on the Bowery at Prince Street. The project doubles the museum\u2019s exhibition space and dramatically enhances accessibility and circulation through three new elevators, a sweeping Atrium Stair and a redesigned entrance plaza\u2014first revealed by the museum\u2019s artistic director, Massimiliano Gioni<\/a>, in an earlier interview with Observer. The expansion also adds major new public spaces, including an enlarged seventh-floor Sky Room and a 74-seat Forum for talks and events. On the ground floor, visitors will enter through an expanded lobby with a larger bookstore and a full-service restaurant operated by the Oberon Group.<\/p>\n

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When we spoke to Gioni, he shared plans for the reopening exhibition, \u201cNew Humans: Memories of the Future<\/a>,\u201d which brings together more than 150 artists, writers, scientists, architects and filmmakers in an ambitious, cross-disciplinary, cross-generational, encyclopedic presentation\u2014very much in Gioni\u2019s signature style<\/a>, but also strikingly timely in its exploration of what it means to be human amid accelerating technological change. \u201cThe show will question how artists have envisioned the future, often predicting or dealing with shifting technological transformations while investigating how those transformations have ultimately changed our perception and representation of the self. It looks into the shifting definitions of humans in the 20th and 21st Centuries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The list of participating artists spans from 20th-century historical figures such as Francis Bacon<\/a>, Salvador Dal\u00ed, Ibrahim El-Salahi, H.R. Giger, Hannah H\u00f6ch, Tatsuo Ikeda<\/a>, Gyula Kosice<\/a>, El Lissitzky<\/a>, and Eduardo Paolozzi<\/a> to recent works by artists who have emerged in recent decades, including Anicka Yi, Lucy Beech<\/a>, Meriem Bennani<\/a>, Cyprien Gaillard<\/a>, Pierre Huyghe<\/a>, Tau Lewis<\/a>, Daria Martin<\/a>, Wangechi Mutu<\/a>, Precious Okoyomon<\/a>, Berenice Olmedo<\/a>, Philippe Parreno<\/a>, Hito Steyerl<\/a>, Jamian Juliano-Villani and Andro Wekua<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Described by Gioni as a \u201cdiagonal history,\u201d one of the exhibition\u2019s starting points is Karel \u010capek\u2019s 1920 science-fiction play Rossum\u2019s Universal Robots<\/i>\u2014the first work to introduce the concept of the robot. Today, as artificial intelligence, robotics and digital technologies dominate public discourse, the exhibition feels uncannily prescient. \u201cI think we live in a world that is overstimulated with information and images that can deal with vast amounts of information and images. Then, we have a nostalgic idea that a museum is a space of peace and calm. This show is, instead, very dense. We want to see what happens when the experience of looking at art is concentrated, as when we absorb images in our cellphones in our everyday lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Gioni, the New Museum will be the first New York institution to mount exhibitions that directly confront the most urgent issues of our time. Despite the several-month delay\u2014and the fact that related themes have since appeared elsewhere (most notably Lu Yang\u2019s premiere at Amant Foundation<\/a>)\u2014the New Museum\u2019s reopening exhibition still promises to be the most comprehensive survey of these questions, bringing a transgenerational and cross-disciplinary perspective to artistic, architectural, cinematic and photographic works spanning the past century and the present. \u201cWe have always been at the forefront of artistic trends and cultural issues. This show continues with this idea of exhibition as a tool to understand the world outside the museum,\u201d Gioni said, describing this transhistorical approach as essential in a moment when a dangerously spreading historical amnesia threatens our ability to understand the present and imagine the future.<\/p>\n

The new building allows the museum to expand on its production-driven mission. The upper floors now include a dedicated studio for artists-in-residence and a purpose-built home for the museum\u2019s cultural incubator, NEW INC. \u201cAs a noncollecting institution, we can put a lot of our energy into truly supporting artists by working with them, producing works and finding the resources to make it possible,\u201d he said. As part of this effort, the museum will debut a new commission, VENUS VICTORIA<\/i>, by British artist Sarah Lucas<\/a> in the entrance plaza. Lucas is the first recipient of the Hostetler\/Wrigley Sculpture Award, a newly established biannual juried prize supporting the production and presentation of new work by women artists on the museum\u2019s public plaza. Additional long-term commissions include a work by Tschabalala Self<\/a> for the museum\u2019s fa\u00e7ade and a monumental sculpture by Kl\u00e1ra Hosnedlov\u00e1 for the new Atrium Stair.<\/p>\n

To celebrate the expansion, the museum will offer free admission on opening weekend. Beginning afterward, the New Museum will raise ticket prices: adult admission will increase from $22 to $25, tickets for seniors and visitors with disabilities will rise from $19 to $22 and student tickets will go from $16 to $19. Admission will remain free for visitors aged 18 and under, as well as SNAP\/EBT benefits recipients.<\/p>\n

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