Museum of Modern Art in New York, USA

The Museum of Modern Art, widely known as MoMA, is a museum of modern and contemporary art in Midtown Manhattan. Its collection extends beyond painting and sculpture to photography, film, architecture, design, prints, drawings, media, and performance. The Manhattan museum at 11 West 53 Street should not be confused with MoMA PS1, its contemporary-art affiliate in Queens.

The MoMA Collection

MoMA began acquiring art in 1929, the same year the museum was established. Its collection has since grown to almost 200,000 works from around the world, covering approximately the last 150 years of visual culture. The museum organizes its collecting and curatorial work through six departments: Architecture and Design, Drawings and Prints, Film, Media and Performance, Painting and Sculpture, and Photography.

The holdings include works closely associated with the development of modern art. Among them are Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night (1889), Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory (1931), and Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962). These works sit within a much broader collection that also includes architectural models and drawings, industrial and graphic design, experimental film, photographs, prints, performance-related works, and newer forms of media art.

The collection is not presented as one fixed permanent display. Galleries are periodically reinstalled, allowing different works, artists, media, places, and historical relationships to appear in new combinations. As a result, the exact works visible during a visit can change even when they belong to MoMA’s collection.

MoMA also provides extensive digital access to its holdings. Its online collection contains records for more than 83,000 artworks and over 26,000 artists, although this represents only part of the museum’s full collection.

Founding and Early Years

MoMA was created in 1929 by a group that included art patrons Lillie P. Bliss, Mary Quinn Sullivan, and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. They wanted New York to have an institution devoted specifically to modern art at a time when established American museums gave relatively little space to many newer artistic movements. Alfred H. Barr Jr. became the museum’s founding director.

The museum first opened in the Heckscher Building at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. Its inaugural exhibition, which opened in November 1929, presented works by Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, and Vincent van Gogh. MoMA later occupied a townhouse at 11 West 53rd Street before a purpose-built museum was constructed on the site.

That first purpose-built building opened in 1939. Architects Philip L. Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone designed it in the International Style, using an architectural language that differed sharply from the monumental historic styles then associated with many art museums. The building included flexible gallery spaces, a film auditorium, a museum store, and an outdoor sculpture garden.

A Museum Campus That Has Repeatedly Changed

The building on West 53rd Street has been expanded and altered several times as the collection and museum program grew. Philip Johnson designed additions during the 1950s and 1960s. A renovation and expansion by César Pelli opened in 1984, followed by another large redevelopment designed by Yoshio Taniguchi that opened in 2004.

MoMA completed another expansion in 2019, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler. The expanded museum reopened on October 21, 2019. The project added more than 40,000 square feet of gallery space and created additional routes between galleries, expanded public areas, street-level galleries, spaces for live programming, and an education-oriented Creativity Lab.

The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden

An outdoor sculpture garden formed part of MoMA’s permanent Manhattan home when the building opened in 1939. Alfred H. Barr Jr. and architecture curator John McAndrew designed its first version as an outdoor setting where sculpture could be displayed alongside planting and open space.

Architect Philip Johnson redesigned the garden in 1953. It was dedicated to museum co-founder Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and became the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. Johnson organized the area as an outdoor gallery with paved sections, pools, trees, planting, and spaces for sculpture. Later museum expansions altered the garden and its relationship with the surrounding galleries, while the 2004 redevelopment restored stronger visual connections between the indoor spaces and the garden.

The garden continues to function as part of the museum’s exhibition space. Installations can change, so particular sculptures should not be assumed to be permanently visible in the same location.

Film, Design, Architecture, and Performance at MoMA

MoMA’s scope has included disciplines that many earlier art museums treated separately from painting and sculpture. Film became part of the museum’s program early in its history, while architecture and industrial design were also incorporated into exhibitions and collecting. Photography later became a dedicated curatorial department, and the museum now maintains a department focused on media and performance as well.

This structure means that objects encountered at MoMA can range from paintings and photographs to furniture, product design, architectural plans, film works, moving-image installations, and performance. The museum’s exhibition history reflects the same range: since 1929 it has presented thousands of exhibitions covering art, architecture, design, photography, film, performance, and newer media.

Research Collections and Archives

MoMA maintains research resources in addition to its public galleries. Its Library holds more than 320,000 items, including books, artists’ books, periodicals, and files concerning artists. The Museum Archives preserve records relating to MoMA’s own history as well as documentation connected with modern and contemporary art.

The museum has also made datasets relating to artworks and artists available for research. Its online exhibition history reaches back to the institution’s founding and includes exhibition records, catalogues, installation views, participating artists when documented, and other archival material.

Hours, Tickets, and Friday Evening Admission

MoMA’s current public hours are 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. on Monday through Thursday and on Saturday and Sunday. On Friday, the museum remains open until 8:30 p.m.. MoMA is closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and galleries begin closing approximately 15 minutes before the museum itself closes.

Current general admission is $30 for adults, $22 for visitors aged 65 and over with identification, and $17 for full-time students with identification, including international students. Admission is free for visitors aged 16 and under and for MoMA members. Visitors with disabilities are charged $22, while an accompanying care partner receives free admission. General admission tickets include the collection galleries and special exhibitions.

New York State residents can receive free admission on Friday evenings from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. through UNIQLO Friday Nights. Advance ticket reservation is required for this program. Because ticket policies and prices can change, the museum’s official visitor information provides the current details.

Accessibility and Entering the Museum

The main public entrance is on West 53rd Street, close to Sixth Avenue. MoMA is wheelchair accessible, and visitors may borrow a wheelchair from the museum. Wheelchair-accessible restrooms and baby-changing facilities are available on every floor. Strollers are permitted inside the museum, although they cannot be used on escalators.

The museum also offers a digital visitor guide with audio material, self-guided tours, information about works on display, and an interactive museum map. Since gallery installations and temporary exhibitions change throughout the year, the digital guide and the museum’s current gallery listings provide the most direct way to identify what is on view during a particular visit.