Art for the People

Sonya Yu is on a mission to make museums free.

- BY ERICA GONZALES

If you wander through the galleries at MoMA PS1 in Queens, you might look up at the clouds through an aperture by James Turrell, or climb a staircase beside a mural from British painter Cecily Brown.

You might discover your next favorite artist among the variety of up-and-comers on display. And most importantly, you can do it all for free.

At the start of 2026, MoMA PS1, a contemporary art institution affiliated with New York’s Museum of Modern Art, became the largest free museum in New York City, thanks to a $900,000 donation from Sonya Yu, an entrepreneur, art collector, and founder of the creative agency Four One Nine. A rising force in the art world, Yu, 39, has covered admission for all visitors for three years. It’s a big win not only for the institution, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, but also for the public, as museum ticket prices rise across the globe.

“I want to be able to provide access in this specific, personalized way to a community that I could really make an impact on,” Yu says on a video call from her home in San Francisco. Though she lives roughly 3,000 miles away from PS1, its surrounding neighborhood resonated with her: It’s home to many Asian and Hispanic residents—immigrants like Yu, who moved to the US from China when she was five years old. Free admission, she says, could give locals and tourists of all backgrounds “the opportunity to go to the museum and not do the daily math that we are burdened with.”