Description
The Studio Museum in Harlem is a museum of art by artists of African descent, on 125th Street in Harlem. Founded in 1968 in a rented loft, it has long been a launching pad for young Black artists.
Since November 2025 it has filled a new seven-story building by David Adjaye, in glass and gray concrete, with five floors of galleries and a roof terrace. Inside, a broad stepped space recalls the stoops of the Harlem houses outside.
The collection holds some 2,000 works and an archive of the photographer James VanDerZee. Every year three emerging artists get a free studio here for eleven months: Kehinde Wiley, Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Simone Leigh are among them.
The first show, in 1968, was of abstract light sculptures by Tom Lloyd. On opening night, the story goes, a visitor smashed one, saying abstract art did not belong in a Black museum.
Since November 2025 it has filled a new seven-story building by David Adjaye, in glass and gray concrete, with five floors of galleries and a roof terrace. Inside, a broad stepped space recalls the stoops of the Harlem houses outside.
The collection holds some 2,000 works and an archive of the photographer James VanDerZee. Every year three emerging artists get a free studio here for eleven months: Kehinde Wiley, Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Simone Leigh are among them.
The first show, in 1968, was of abstract light sculptures by Tom Lloyd. On opening night, the story goes, a visitor smashed one, saying abstract art did not belong in a Black museum.