Studio Museum in Harlem Readies for November 15 Opening
Without a physical home for seven years, the Studio Museum in Harlem is counting down the days to the public debut of its new, purpose-built facility on November 15. The Studio Museum, first established in 1968 as a hub for artists of African descent—locally, nationally, and internationally—will open with a presentation of work by the late, Queens-based artist and activist Tom Lloyd, who was the subject of the museum’s inaugural exhibition nearly 60 years ago. Also on view will be an installation of works pulled from the permanent collection, an exhibition of photographs and ephemera tracing the museum’s history, and more. New site-specific commissions will also be unveiled throughout the coming year.
Installation view of From the Studio: Fifty-Eight Years of Artists in Residence in the museum's Artist-in-Residence Studio. Photo © Albert Vecerka/Esto, courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
Education Workshop featuring Christopher Myers's Harlem Is a Myth (2025) Photo © Albert Vecerka/Esto, courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
Designed by Adjaye Associates with Cooper Robertson in the role of executive architect (also partners for the Adjaye-designed Princeton University Art Museum, which opened late last month), the 82,000-square-foot museum at 144 125th Street features 14,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, education-dedicated spaces, studios for the museum’s famed and long-running artist-in-residence program, and enhanced visitor amenities spread across seven floors. There is also 8,000 square feet of outdoor space in the form of a rooftop terrace featuring sweeping views of Harlem and beyond, with landscape design by local practice Studio Zewde.
Tom Lloyd standing in front of unknown artwork, 1968. Photographer unknown; courtesy Studio Museum of Harlem
The new building features roughly double the exhibition space than at its previous home at the same site, a century-old bank renovated by pioneering Black architect J. Max Bond Jr. in 1982 (subsequent expansion and renovation projects kicked off just three years later and again in 2004). As Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum, told RECORD earlier this fall, the adapted bank building was “funky in every way…but we loved it.”
“Over time, the amount of money we were spending repairing—and not planned maintenance—continued to mount,” Golden adds. “Practicalities are what made this project necessary for the future of the Studio Museum: to have a purpose-built building that could allow us to really meet our mission.”
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Exterior View of the Studio Museum in Harlem's new building (1); interior view of the terrazzo-clad grand stair (2). Photos © Albert Vecerka/Esto, courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
“Over time, the amount of money we were spending repairing—and not planned maintenance—continued to mount,” Golden adds. “Practicalities are what made this project necessary for the future of the Studio Museum: to have a purpose-built building that could allow us to really meet our mission.”
Demolition work on the original building began in 2018 (a year after the Adjaye design was first revealed), prompting the museum to launch off-site programming and partnerships with institutions including the Museum of Modern Art.
View of the museum's Stoop, a public gathering space, with Glenn Ligon’s Give Us a Poem (2007). Photo © Albert Vecerka/Esto, courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
As noted in a press announcement, the design of the new building, faced in a brooding, precast-concrete facade, takes its inspiration from the “soaring church sanctuaries, vibrant stages, bustling streets, and brownstone stoops of Harlem.”
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Much like the Princeton University Museum of Art, the Studio Museum’s road to completion was one flecked by scandal, namely allegations of sexual misconduct against its lead architect, David Adjaye, that came to light in 2023. Work on the museum’s new $160 million home—a public-private effort in collaboration with New York City—continued but the relationship between the institution and Adjaye himself was severed. (Adjaye spoke with RECORD editor in chief Josephine Minutillo for the November issue of the magazine.)
A full, feature-length article on the new Studio Museum of Harlem will appear in the December issue of RECORD.
Rooftop terrace view, looking south. Photo © Albert Vecerka/Esto, courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
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