Culture Chronicle

Museum for African Art Announces April 2011 Opening
Artdaily.org - April 23, 2010

Elsie McCabe Thompson, President, the Museum for African Art, announced that the Museum--one of the country's premier gateways to the arts and cultures of Africa and the African Diaspora--will reopen to the public in its major new facility in April 2011. Designed by the renowned New York City firm Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP, the new building is located at 1280 Fifth Avenue, at East 110th Street, in Manhattan. There it will join "Museum Mile," linking this prestigious row of museums with Harlem, one of the country's most important centers of historic and contemporary African-American culture. (The Museum is currently closed to the public, and is operating out of temporary quarters in Queens, New York.)

The Museum for African Art's new home comprises four floors (one below grade) of a nineteen-story residential tower and encompasses approximately 75,000 square feet of space. With a dramatic increase in public space, the new location will make possible significant growth in the number and scope of exhibitions, public programs, and educational initiatives, enabling the Museum to serve larger audiences than previously possible.

Ms. McCabe Thompson states, "The Museum for African Art is thrilled to be in the final stages of construction before moving into its new home. The Museum is eager to assume its role as both a thriving neighborhood resource--a place where people of all ages and backgrounds can feel a sense of excitement and belonging--and an important national and international destination for art lovers and those interested in the cultures of Africa and the African Diaspora." For the full article, click here