Studio Museum in Harlem, Closed for Renovations Since 2018, Sets November Reopening

The museum, which features work from African and African American artists, will debut a new look in its expanded space

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

August 6, 2025

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After a seven-year hiatus, the Studio Museum in Harlem has announced that it will reopen its doors on November 15, welcoming visitors to its brand-new 82,000 square-foot building for a day of celebration. 

The museum, which centers the work of African American and African diasporic artists, has been closed since January 2018. Founded in 1968, the institution moved to its current location at 144 W. 125th Street in 1982. As its ambitions and collections expanded—regularly hosting workshops and community events in addition to displaying thousands of artworks and rotating exhibitions—the museum also outgrew the space, which was formerly a bank. 

“Some people have said, ‘Mission accomplished; why do you need a big building?’” Michael Govan, the director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, told The New York Times’ Robin Pogrebin in 2017. “Well, why does MoMA need a new building, why does the Whitney need a new building? Somehow the Studio Museum is supposed to stay in an unkempt, un-air-conditioned building. Why shouldn’t they have the same institutional ambition?”

In September 2017, the museum’s director and steward Thelma Golden announced an ambitious $175 million fundraising goal and released architectural renders for the reimagined space, which was designed by Adjaye Associates in collaboration with Cooper Robertson and “takes its inspiration from the brownstones, churches and bustling sidewalks of Harlem,” according to a museum statement. 

Delays, caused largely by the pandemic, pushed back its planned 2021 reopening by several years. It wasn’t until 2020 that the museum’s facade, located at 144 W. 125th Street, was demolished as part of the renovations. But the museum stayed busy during the extra time, exceeding its original fundraising goals by raising more than $300 million. 

“As our historic homecoming approaches, I am reflecting on the transformative vision of the artists, supporters and community members who have helped us shape this pivotal moment in our legacy,” Golden says in a statement. “Our breathtaking new building is an invaluable space and a tribute to the museum’s mission and the vitality of artists of African descent.”

Across seven floors and 14,000 square feet of exhibition space, the museum’s inaugural exhibitions include a rotating permanent collection of roughly 9,000 artworks from 800 artists, and installations created by alumni of the museum’s Artist-In-Residence program, which now has its own dedicated 2,100 square-foot lounge and studio space, ARTNews’ Maximilíano Durón reports. It will also feature the work of organizer and artist Tom Lloyd, whose creations, which harness light as a medium, were the very first to be displayed at the museum nearly 60 years ago in an exhibition called “Electronic Refractions II.”

Several pieces that have become synonymous with the museum will also be reinstalled, including David Hammons’ red, black and green pan-African-inspired Untitled flag, Glenn Ligon’s Give Us a Poem wall sculpture and Houston E. Conwill’s The Joyful Mysteries time capsules.

Along with the museum’s reopening, a new handbook, Meaning Matter Memory: Selections from the Studio Museum in Harlem Collection, will highlight more than 260 artists’ contributions to the permanent collection. 

With its new design, the museum has increased its indoor and outdoor public space by roughly 70 percent, including a rooftop terrace and cafe. 

The museum’s leadership hopes the new, expanded space is both a community refuge from political unrest and a place where civic participation and new art can germinate. 

“As we are reopening, it’s something we are thinking about,” Golden tells The New York Times’ Zachary Small. “How will we exist in this new world that is different from seven years ago—but maybe not so different from 1968.”

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Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.