The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA), also called the Bronx Museum of Art
or simply the Bronx Museum,
is an American cultural institution located in
Concourse, Bronx, New York
Concourse is a neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of the Bronx which includes the Bronx County Courthouse, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and Yankee Stadium. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving cl ...
. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th-century works created by American artists, but it has hosted exhibitions of art and design from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Its permanent collection consists of more than 800 paintings, sculptures, photographs, and works on paper.
The museum is part of the
Grand Concourse Historic District.
History
The Bronx Museum of the Arts was originally opened to try to stir interest in the arts in the Bronx borough and to serve the diverse populations of the area. The museum opened on May 11, 1971, in a partnership between the
Bronx Council on the Arts
The Bronx Council on the Arts (established 1962), is an art based culture agency that has grown to become the official cultural agency of the Bronx, New York City. It provides a “lifeline” to more than 4,800 artists and over 250 arts and comm ...
, which was founded in 1961, and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
The opening coincided with a borough-wide "Bronx Day" event. The first exhibit consisted of 28 paintings from the Met's collection.
The museum was originally housed in the first floor
rotunda (the Veteran's Memorial Hall) of the
Bronx County Courthouse
The Bronx County Courthouse, also known as the Mario Merola Building, is an historic courthouse building located in the Concourse and Melrose neighborhoods of the Bronx in New York City. It was designed in 1931 and built between 1931 and 1934. ...
, converted using $77,000 in municipal funds.
Additional galleries were located in the Bronx's
Co-op City
Co-op City (short for Cooperative City) is a cooperative housing development located in the northeast section of the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It is bounded by Interstate 95 to the southwest, west, and north and the Hutchinson River ...
,
Bedford Park, and
Allerton neighborhoods, with the Allerton gallery was located in the Beth Abraham Hospital.
In its first 12 years of operation, the museum held over 350 exhibitions.
In 1982, the city purchased a vacant
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
at 165th Street and the
Grand Concourse as a new location for the museum.
The new location opened to the public in May 1983, in conjunction with "Bronx Week," which succeeded "Bronx Day."
The new space was inaugurated with an exhibition of twentieth century artwork. It consisted of paintings, photographs, and prints borrowed form the Met.
An expansion and renovation was completed in 1988 at the cost of $5.8 million.
In February 2004, construction began on a $19 million expansion project that doubled the museum's size to . The expansion opened in October 2006.
In 2008, a arts center was added to accommodate educational programs for local schoolchildren and their families. Beginning on March 29, 2012, the museum ceased charging admission for all days, whereas previously, admission was free on Fridays only.
Design
The museum is located at the northeast corner of 165th Street and the Grand Concourse in the
Concourse
A concourse is a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space.
The term is not limited to places where there are literally pathways or roadways or t ...
neighborhood of the
South Bronx
The South Bronx is an area of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Bronx, Concourse, Mott Haven, Bronx, Mott Haven, Melrose, B ...
, slightly northeast of
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer.
Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the origi ...
.
The building was originally the Young Israel Synagogue, or Young Israel of the Concourse,
constructed from 1959 to 1961 and designed by Ukrainian-born Simon B. Zelnick.
The building was converted into a museum space in the early 1980s using concrete, steel and glass, at the cost of $2 million.
The 1988 expansion was designed by Castro-Blanco, Piscioneri & Feder, who renovated the building exterior with black granite and metal, added large continuous "ribbon windows" on the facade, and built a three-story glass
atrium
Atrium may refer to:
Anatomy
* Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart
* Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods
* Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain
* Pulmona ...
at one of the corners, which serves as the museum lobby.
The 1988 design has been described as "awkward"
and "darksome"
with "cramped balconies" and a cornerside entrance that give it a "suburban mall" feel.
It has also been criticized due to its lack of exhibition space.
![Bronx Museum white jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Bronx_Museum_white_jeh.jpg)
The 2006 expansion at 1046 Grand Concourse was designed by
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
-based architecture firm
Arquitectonica
Arquitectonica is an international architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, and urban planning design firm headquartered in Miami, Florida’s Coconut Grove neighborhood. The firm also has offices in ten other cities throughout ...
, which added the three-story North Wing building adjacent to the original structure. It features a larger entrance with a two-story lobby, a new gallery and enhanced educational facilities.
The outer design uses a "pleated aluminum facade" in
contemporary
Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
/
Art Moderne
Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...
style. It consists of seven irregularly-shaped vertical aluminum pieces connected by
fritted glass
Fritted glass is finely porous glass through which gas or liquid may pass. It is made by sintering together glass particles into a solid but porous body. This porous glass body can also be called a frit. Applications in laboratory glassware ...
, resembling an
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
or
paper fan.
The side of the structure features black and white concrete blocks organized in geometric patterns, similar to the brick facades of
rowhouses
In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house (British English, UK) or townhouse (American English, US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings party ...
and commercial buildings in the Bronx.
These walls are temporary, designed to be removed in the event of future expansion, which would replace the original museum with a residential high-rise building.
At the rear of the structure on the second floor is a
sculpture garden
A sculpture garden or sculpture park is an outdoor garden or park which includes the presentation of sculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials in landscaped surroundings.
A sculpture garden may be private, owned by a ...
.
This new expansion has been described as "a white box with raw concrete floors" that, although "institutional," serves its purpose of being accessible to all visitors.
In 2016, the museum announced that it is starting a $25 million plan to renovate and expand and well as establish a $10 million endowment. The plan will be overseen by architect
Monica Ponce de Leon
Monica may refer to:
People
*Monica (actress) (born 1987), Indian film actress
*Monica (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Monica (singer) (born 1980), American R&B singer, songwriter, producer, ...
and has received $7 million from the mayor
Bill de Blasio
Bill de Blasio (; born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961; later Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm) is an American politician who served as the 109th mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he held the office of New Yor ...
's office. The rest of the funds are expected to be raised privately. The first part of the renovation is planned to be completed by 2020.
Exhibitions
In 1986, the museum began "A Decade of En Foco" with the exhibition, "En Foco Documentation Portfolio N1, The New York Puerto Rican Experience." In this series of exhibitions, the Bronx Museum of the Arts showcased works by artists in the
En Foco En Foco is a non-profit organization that nurtures contemporary fine art and documentary photographers of diverse cultures, primarily U.S. residents of Latino, African and Asian heritage, and native peoples of the Americas and the Pacific.
Founded ...
organization, a group of photographers who work to promote the work of Hispanic artists. The series of exhibitions ended in 1986.
In 1987, the museum gained attention for two high-profile exhibitions: a career retrospective of
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
artist
Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden (September 2, 1911 – March 12, 1988) was an American artist, author, and songwriter. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils, and collages. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden grew up in New York City a ...
and a presentation of the then-evolving school of
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
-generated art. More recent exhibitions have included the 2006 presentation "Tropicalia: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture"
and the 2008 overview of street-level photography by
Jamel Shabazz
Jamel Shabazz (born 1960) is an African-American fashion, fine art, documentary and street style photographer. His work has been published in books, shown in exhibitions, and used in editorial magazine works. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. ...
, a
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...
-based artist.
In 2013, the museum won a competition to represent the United States at the 2013
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
; the museum commissioned “Triple Point”, an installation by artist
Sarah Sze
Sarah Sze (; born 1969) is an American artist widely recognized for challenging the boundaries of painting, installation, and architecture. Sze's sculptural practice ranges from slight gestures discovered in hidden spaces to expansive installati ...
.
From 2015 to 2016, the museum held a retrospective of
Martin Wong
Martin Wong (; July 11, 1946 – August 12, 1999) was a Chinese-American Visual arts of the United States, painter of the late 20th century. His work has been described as a meticulous blend of social realism and visionary art, visionary art st ...
's career entitled ''Martin Wong: Human Instamatic''.
In 2016, the museum featured the exhibition "Mask" by photographer Frank Gimpaya who collaborated with the En Foco organization for the exhibition. The exhibition was inspired by "The Veil" by
Georges Seurat
Georges Pierre Seurat ( , , ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough su ...
and was an attempt to celebrate the work of Gimpaya and a new-era for the En Foco group.
The museum annually hosts "The Artist in the Marketplace" program where a panel of art professionals select artists to participate in the program. The aim of the program is to allow emerging artists a networking opportunity. The program ends with an exhibition in the Bronx Museum of the Arts.
Management
The museum's founding is credited to Irma Fleck who created the museum to try to reverse the decline of the South Bronx. She was a member of the Bronx Council of the Arts.
In 2006,
Holly Block became the museum's director. She was previously the executive director of
Art in General
Art in General was a non-profit contemporary art exhibition space known for its vibrant and ground-breaking projects as a formidable and longstanding New York City alternative space, focused on giving meaningful resources and opportunities to ar ...
, a
nonprofit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
organization in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
and replaced Olivia Georgia.
One of Block's most known decisions as director was to make admission at the museum free in 2012, following which the museum has quadrupled attendance.
In 2011, museum officials also put together a council of residents to serve as "cultural ambassadors" to the community and to advise them on public engagement.
In July 2018,
Deborah Cullen began as the director of the museum. Previously, the position had been vacant due to the death of former director Holly Block in 2017. Cullen previously worked as the director and chief curator at the Wallach Art Gallery at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. Deborah Cullen departed in 2019.
The board appointed former deputy director, Klaudio Rodriguez as interim director in December 2019. Rodriguez came to the Bronx Museum in 2017 from the Frost Art Museum at Florida International University. In November 2020 he became executive director.
The museum has a $2.8 million operating budget. Once supported almost entirely by government funding, it is now funded mainly by corporations, foundations and private donors.
The museum is typically able to spend $10,000 to $50,000 a year for acquisitions, and it receives donations and bequests of work.
In 2013, it completed a campaign to raise $1 million for a new acquisitions fund that will focus on buying the works of contemporary artists with strong connections to the Bronx.
The museum is a
501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...
.
See also
*
List of art museums
Africa
Algeria
* Algiers: Museum of Modern Art of Algiers, Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions, National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers
* Oran: Ahmed Zabana National Museum
----
Egypt
* Cairo: Egyptian Museum, Museum of Isl ...
*
List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City
New York City is home to hundreds of cultural institutions and historic sites, many of which are internationally known. This list contains the most famous or well-regarded organizations, based on their mission.
Museums
Also included are non-prof ...
References
External links
*
{{authority control
1971 establishments in New York City
Art museums established in 1971
Art museums and galleries in New York City
Art museums established in 1961
Buildings and structures completed in 2006
Modern art museums in the United States
Museums in the Bronx
Concourse, Bronx
Non-profit organizations based in the Bronx