America's leading modern art museum, MoMA in New York, will close from June to October this year as the museum completes a $400 million renovation.
The major redesign will completely reinvent the museum's layout, adding 40,000 square feet of exhibition space. The museum plans to display a more diverse cast of artists, including more Latin American, African American, Asian and female artists. MoMA's director, Glenn Lowry, said that "The real value of this expansion is not just more space, but space that allows us to rethink the experience of art in the Museum. We have an opportunity to re-energize and expand upon our founding mission—to welcome everyone to experience MoMA as a laboratory for the study and presentation of the art of our time, across all visual arts.”
There will also be greater emphasis on performance art space with a new state-of-the-art Kravis Studio and the Crown Platform for exploring the interdisciplinary nature of art. Free street-level galleries open to all will be added to bring art to the streets of Midtown Manhattan.
The museum's major exhibit before the closure will be Joan Miró: Birth of the World, a retrospective on the legendary Surrealist and the pièce de résistance he completed in 1925. MoMA will close on June 23 and re-open to visitors on October 21, 2019. In order to prepare for the closure, the museum will be opening early (10am) every day and will stay open until 9pm on Thursdays.
