In the late 1920s, three progressive and influential patrons of the arts, Miss Lillie P. Bliss, Mrs. Cornelius J. Sullivan, and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., perceived a need to challenge the conservative policies of traditional museums and to establish an institution devoted exclusively to modern art. When The Museum of Modern Art was founded in 1929, its founding Director, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., intended the Museum to be dedicated to helping people understand and enjoy the visual arts of our time, and that it might provide New York with "the greatest museum of modern art in the world."
The public's response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and over the course of the next ten years, the Museum moved three times into progressively larger temporary quarters, and in 1939 finally opened the doors of the building it still occupies in midtown Manhattan. Upon his appointment as the first Director, Barr submitted a plan for the conception and organization of the Museum that would result in the Museum's multi-departmental structure with departments devoted for the first time to Architecture and Design, Film and Video, and Photography, in addition to Painting and Sculpture, Drawings, and Prints and Illustrated Books. Subsequent expansions took place during the 1950s and 1960s planned by the architect Philip Johnson, who also designed The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden. In 1984, a major renovation designed by Cesar Pelli doubled the Museum's gallery space and enhanced visitor facilities.
The rich and varied collection of The Museum of Modern Art constitutes one of the most comprehensive and panoramic views into modern art. From an initial gift of eight prints and one drawing, The Museum of Modern Art's collection has grown to include over 150,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, architectural models and drawings, and design objects. MoMA also owns approximately 22,000 films and four million film stills, and MoMA's Library and Archives, the premier research facilities of their kind in the world, hold over 300,000 books, artist books, and periodicals, and extensive individual files on more than 70,000 artists. The Museum Archives contains primary source material related to the history of MoMA and modern and contemporary art.
The Museum maintains an active schedule of modern and contemporary art exhibitions addressing a wide range of subject matter, mediums, and time periods, highlighting significant recent developments in the visual arts and new interpretations of major artists and art historical movements. Works of art from its collection are displayed in rotating installations so that the public may regularly expect to find new works on display. Ongoing programs of classic and contemporary films range from retrospectives and historical surveys to introductions of the work of independent and experimental film- and videomakers. Visitors also enjoy access to a bookstore offering an assortment of publications and reproductions, and a design store offering objects related to modern and contemporary art and design.
The Museum is dedicated to its role as an educational institution and provides a complete program of activities intended to assist both the general public and special segments of the community in approaching and understanding the world of modern and contemporary art. In addition to gallery talks, lectures, and symposia, the Museum offers special activities for parents, teachers, families, students, preschoolers, bilingual visitors, and people with special needs. The Museum's Library and Archives contain the leading concentration of research material on modern art in the world, and each of the curatorial departments maintains a study center available to students, scholars and researchers. In addition, the Museum has one of the most active publishing programs of any art museum and has published more than 1,200 editions appearing in twenty languages.
In January 2000, the Museum and P.S.1 exercised a Memorandum of Understanding formalizing their affiliation. The final arrangement results in an affiliation in which the Museum becomes the sole corporate member of P.S.1 and P.S.1 maintains its artistic and corporate independence. This innovative partnership expands outreach for both institutions, and offers a broad range of collaborative opportunities in collections, exhibitions, educational programs, and administration.
MoMA has just completed the largest and most ambitious building project in its history. This project nearly doubled the space for MoMA's exhibitions and programs. Designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, the new MoMA features 630,000 square feet of new and redesigned space. The Peggy and David Rockefeller Building on the western portion of the site houses the main exhibition galleries, and The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building—the Museum's first building devoted solely to these activities—on the eastern portion of the site provides over five times more space for classrooms, auditoriums, teacher training workshops, and the Museum's expanded Library and Archives. These two buildings frame the enlarged Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. The new Museum opened to the public on November 20, 2004, and the Cullman Building opened in November 2006.
To make way for its renovation and rebuilding, MoMA closed on Fifty-third Street in Manhattan on May 21, 2002, and opened MoMA QNS in Long Island City, Queens, on June 29, 2002. MoMA QNS served as the base of the Museum's exhibition program and operations through September 27, 2004, when the facility was closed in preparation for The Museum of Modern Art's reopening in Manhattan. This building now provides state-of-the-art storage spaces for the Museum.
Today, the Museum and P.S.1 welcome thousands of visitors every year. A still larger public is served by the Museum's national and international programs of circulating exhibitions, loan programs, circulating film and video library, publications, Library and Archives holdings, Web site, educational activities, special events, and retail sales.
The Nouvel Tower
In 2007, The Museum of Modern Art entered into an agreement with W2005/Hines West Fifty-Third Realty, LLC, an affiliate of Hines, one of the world's most respected private real estate firms, for the sale of a vacant parcel of land adjacent to the Museum. The developer has proposed an iconic, eighty-two-story tower for the lot, which is located at 53 West Fifty-third Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
MoMA will gain the use of approximately 40,000 square feet of new gallery space and 35,000 square feet of support space, bringing the total additional Museum space to 75,000 square feet. The mixed-use plan also calls for 150 residential apartments and one hundred hotel rooms.
The project will enable MoMA to showcase more works of art from its internationally renowned collection, as well as special exhibitions. The additional galleries—a 30% increase in MoMA's existing exhibition space on the second, fourth, and fifth floors—will be seamlessly integrated into the current exhibition galleries, creating an expanded and enhanced visitor experience. There will be no change to the existing Museum entrances or lobby.
The developer selected this year's Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, Jean Nouvel to design the tower, which features a unique silhouette that tapers as it rises to a distinctive spire. The New York Times said the tower "promises to be the most exhilarating addition to the skyline in a generation."
Nouvel's tower will augment a corridor of New York with a rich architectural heritage, which includes Philip Johnson's "Lipstick Building" at Third Avenue; Hugh Stubbins's Citicorp Building at Lexington Avenue, both Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building and Gordon Bunshaft's Lever House at Park Avenue; the renovated MoMA complex between Fifth and Sixth avenues with buildings by Philip Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone, Philip Johnson, and Yoshio Taniguchi; Cesar Pelli's Museum Tower, also on West Fifty-third Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues; the recently constructed American Folk Art Museum building, designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien; and Eero Saarinen's CBS Building, "Blackrock," at Sixth Avenue.
MoMA Design and Book Store
MoMA's striking flagship store within the Museum building features a broad selection of art reproductions, design objects, and more than 2,000 book titles, as well as exclusive items for the whole family, developed and produced by MoMA.
MoMA Books
Located on the Museum's second floor and overlooking the Lobby, MoMA Books provides a tranquil environment for perusing a curated selection of 1,500 of the newest and most notable art and design titles from around the world.
MoMA Design Store (53 Street)
44 West 53 Street, New York, NY
(212) 767-1050
Saturday–Thursday 9:30 a.m.–6:30 p.m.
Friday 9:30 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
Directly across the street from the Museum, the MoMA Design Store showcases a sophisticated collection of design objects, gifts, jewelry, personal accessories, furniture, and lighting, including items represented in the Museum's design collection, and a MUJI store.
Target Free Fridays
Admission is free for all visitors during Target Free Friday Nights, sponsored by Target, every Friday evening, 4:00–8:00 p.m. Tickets for Target Free Friday Nights are not available in advance.
Special Membership Offer for MoMA Visitors
Apply the full price of your admission ticket toward a new MoMA membership! Just present your MoMA admission ticket within seven days of your visit at the lobby Member Services desk or at the MoMA Stores. If you can't get to us to present your ticket, please call (212) 708-9696 during regular business hours for assistance. Limit one ticket per membership. We look forward to having you with us!
MoMA/Top of The Rock Observation Deck
Joint Ticket Purchase at MoMA admissions desk: $30.00 (20% off retail cost)
Buy the MoMA Top of The Rock combination ticket and see two inspiring views with one easy ticket: View MoMA's world-renowned collection of modern art, then walk two blocks to Top of The Rock Observation Deck on Fiftieth Street to see the New York City skyline from seventy stories above Rockefeller Center.
