New York City

MoMA Set to Reopen After $450 Million Expansion and Renovation

The world-renowned museum was closed for four months to undergo the upgrade

What to Know

  • For months the most visited museum in the country -- New York City's Museum of Modern Art -- was closed
  • The four-month closure was to allow staffers to retouch works and expand its gallery space
  • MoMA -- along with its $450 million dollar expansion -- will finally reopen Oct. 21

For months the most visited museum in the country -- New York City's Museum of Modern Art -- was closed to allow staffers to retouch works and expand its gallery space.

Set to reopen later this month, the spaces, filled with modern art will grip visitors thanks to the masterpieces being exhibited like never before.

"It’s a much richer experience,” MoMA Director Glenn Lowry said.

Lowry is not only the museum's director, but he also helped shape the vision for MoMA's $450 million dollar expansion.

"We moved a number of things around because we had more space we could organize yourselves better," Lowry said.

A number of art pieces will now be seen in an entirely new wing. Museum workers will now have room to display 1,000 additional pieces of art.

While masterpieces created by crowd favorites like Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh will still be on display, it what will be hanging on walls next to them that will be different. Think along the lines of abstract furniture paired with world famous pop art.

“Now there is a conversation that you would have never have seen before at MoMA or might never have seen at MoMA and its enlightening,” Lowry said, adding that “it isn’t as if we’ve lost the ability to tell individual medium based stories, but we’ve gained the space that will allow us to tell those stories and much more and that’s what’s so exciting.”

These are just some of the striking changes to the museum that first opened in 1929.

Other shifts speak to the times. There are now five times the number of works by female artists.

The museum is set to reopen Oct. 21.

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