Walter

New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
212.219.1222

Last week I got the chance to visit this recently-opened museum which is located a few blocks from where I live near the Soho and Little Italy neighborhoods in lower Manhattan. The building’s location on The Bowery is startling, given the decades-long reputation of the street as the home of individuals who are, as the saying goes, “down on their luck” -- patrons of the neighborhood’s many soup kitchens and residents of the cheap hotels commonly referred to as “flop houses.” Like many other areas of New York, The Bowery is becoming gentrified as run-down buildings are replaced with shiny new restaurants and glossy condos. “Where will the derelicts go to live?” one might well ask. Most likely they will need to leave the city. If the pace of gentrification continues, The Bowery may become once again what it was in the 18th century: an elegant street for the well to do.

The design of the building is as striking as its location and was given many appreciative reviews when the museum opened December 1, 2007. The sleek modernity of the design is accentuated by an outer layer of perforated metal which changes in appearance under different light conditions.

Once inside, the visitor is struck by a warehouse-like, industrial design, which the museum claims is intended to reflect the nature of the neighborhood. The main floor features a bookstore and a very fine coffee shop. Floors two through five are high-ceilinged exhibit spaces. While the museum has done its best to utilize limited space, the fact remains that the interior as a whole has a rather cramped feel, despite the mitigating effect of some very high ceilings.

The displayed works challenge what most of us think of as art. The institution’s brochure notes that “The New museum is the only museum with the mission to promote new art and new ideas, and the only museum in New York City devoted exclusively to contemporary art.” This means that most of what you see here is video, audio, online presentations, or edgy sculptures made from old clothes, trash baskets, light bulbs, posters, and just about any other common or oddball object you can imagine. The works, it perhaps goes without saying, could well be lumped into that category of formal constructs filed under the rubric of “acquired tastes.”

You can learn more about the museum at its web site: http://www.newmuseum.org/

Finally, board participants who would like to meet at the museum and share a tour are invited to email me. (See my profile for my web site info.)

- Walter Idlewild