The Studio Museum in Harlem reopens, welcomes a new future while staying true to its roots

The Studio Museum in Harlem is back, bigger and bolder than ever.

- By MARIELLE ARGUEZA Special to the AmNews

Interior view of the Studio Museum in Harlem's new building, featuring the Stoop and the Grand Staircase

(Dror Baldinger FAIA photo courtesy of Studio Museum in Harlem)

Since the early 1980s, the Studio Museum operated out of its 125th Street property in Harlem in a former bank building cleverly retrofitted to become a working studio, gallery, and community space.

Within five stories and 60,000 square feet, the Studio Museum accomplished plenty. Globally, it became known for helping launch the careers of up-and-coming artists such as Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas, and David Hammons through its famous artist-in-residence program. Locally, it became institutionalized as the place to witness Black art and to see the Black experience enshrined.

After decades in operation, it was clear to the Studio Museum team that its physical space was not scaling fast enough for its programming or future growth. "I loved the old building, but it was a bank, and sometimes still felt like a bank," said Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

By 2017, the museum quietly raised $175 million in a capital campaign to create an entirely new building on the same property. To date, it has raised more than $300 million to secure not just the building but the future sustainability of the museum as part of its Creating Space Campaign.

After seven years of construction, the Studio Museum is ready to welcome the public back through its doors with a grand (re)opening on Saturday, Nov. 15.

Addressing members of the media in a press opening, Golden said, "We chose to build this completely new home on the same ground where we stood for so many years. We could've looked for a different site in Harlem. We could have relocated to a space in an existing building. But we knew, and our public knew, that this site, which the museum has occupied since the early '80s, is where we belong."