The New Museum on the Bowery will open its doors again on March 21 after nearly two years of construction—a longer closure than originally planned, but one that transforms the institution into something substantially bigger.
Since March 2024, the building has been shuttered for a major expansion designed by OMA (Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu). The new addition brings the museum's total footprint from roughly 60,000 square feet to nearly 120,000. That's almost a doubling of the space where visitors actually see art: gallery area expands by roughly 9,600 square feet, enough to meaningfully change how exhibitions breathe and flow.
Beyond galleries, the expansion carves out room for New Inc (the museum's artist incubator), dedicated artist studios, and education spaces. There's a new public plaza, a 74-seat Forum for talks and screenings, and an expanded Sky Room on the seventh floor. Three additional elevators should make moving through the building feel less like an obstacle course.
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The practical side gets attention too. The bookstore doubles in size—a small thing that matters if you've ever felt cramped browsing art books in a tight corner. A new restaurant, unnamed but helmed by Julia Sherman (executive chef) and Henry Rich of the Oberon Group, will serve a vegetable-forward menu. The space includes a commissioned work by artist Ian Cheng and furniture by designer Minjae Kim.
Three artists have created new commissions specifically for the building: Tschabalala Self for the facade, Klára Hosnedlová for the Atrium Stair, and Sarah Lucas for the public plaza. These aren't afterthoughts—they're woven into the architecture itself.
The reopening weekend (March 21–22) offers free admission, funded by trustee Charlotte Feng Ford. Registration opens next month. The museum is also raising ticket prices slightly: adult admission moves from $22 to $25, seniors and visitors with disabilities from $19 to $22, students from $16 to $19. Admission remains free for visitors 18 and under and for people with SNAP/EBT benefits.
The inaugural exhibition, "New Humans: Memories of the Future," will occupy the entire building and feature work by over 200 artists and thinkers. It pairs 20th-century figures—Francis Bacon, Salvador Dalí, Hannah Höch—with contemporary artists like Wangechi Mutu, Hito Steyerl, and Anicka Yi, exploring how technology and social change have reshaped what it means to be human.
Lisa Phillips, the museum's director since 1999, will step down in April after leading the institution through this expansion. In her final statement, she framed the reopened building as a renewed commitment to "risk-taking, collaboration, and experimentation." Whether the physical expansion translates into a deeper cultural shift will become clear over the coming months.
