Digital Editions
Newsletters
Subscribe
Digital Editions
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Museums & Heritage
news

New-York Historical Society changes its name and reveals plans for new $175m wing

The museum's new wing dedicated to American democracy will open in 2026, just in time for the US’s semiquincentennial

Elena Goukassian
29 October 2024
Share
Rendering of the Tang Wing for American Democracy at the New York Historical Courtesy of Alden Studios for Robert A.M. Stern Architects

Rendering of the Tang Wing for American Democracy at the New York Historical Courtesy of Alden Studios for Robert A.M. Stern Architects

The New-York Historical Society is finally ridding itself of that pesky hyphen in its name, rebranding as the New York Historical (NYH). The museum’s new $175m wing dedicated to American democracy is on track to open in 2026, just in time for the 250th anniversary of the US’s founding.

The financier Oscar Tang and his wife, the archaeologist and art historian Agnes Hsu-Tang, gave $20m towards the 70,000-sq.-ft expansion project, which will be named the Tang Wing for American Democracy. (The City of New York provided $57m for the project.) Hsu-Tang is the chair of the NYH’s board; the couple have previously funded a number of initiatives at the museum, as well as giving millions to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Philharmonic. The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, was funded by Tang and named for his first wife, who died in 1992.

The Tang Wing at the NYH, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, will house the Academy for American Democracy, an educational programme for local schoolchildren. It will also host the American LGBTQ+ Museum, as well as the NYH’s museum studies master’s degree programme, founded in 2019 with the City University of New York's School of Professional Studies. The wing will add new classrooms, galleries, a conservation studio, storage for the library, a courtyard and a rooftop terrace overlooking Central Park.

“This fall brings several important milestones for New York’s first museum,” Louise Mirrer, president and chief executive of the NYH, said in a statement. “Agnes and Oscar’s most generous gift enables us to greatly expand teaching and celebrating democracy here in New York, our nation’s first capital and the place where George Washington was inaugurated. With our new name and look, we are embracing our responsibility not simply as stewards and storytellers of history but, through our education programmes reaching 30,000 students each year, as a contemporary leader in ensuring democracy’s future.”

Museums & HeritageNew-York Historical SocietyNew York CityRobert A.M. SternMuseum expansionsFundingBuilding projects
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Instagram
Bluesky
LinkedIn
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
© The Art Newspaper

Related content

Queens Museumnews
21 October 2021

Queens Museum director on its transformative expansion and learning from the pandemic

Led by Sally Tallant, the community-focused museum is building a new educational centre thanks to a $26.4m grant from New York City

Gabriella Angeleti
Musee d'Orsaynews
6 March 2020

Anonymous €20m donation kickstarts Musée d’Orsay transformation

Radical revelopment of former train station building will make way for more Impressionist works and visitors

Gareth Harris
Museums & Heritagenews
10 December 2024

Metropolitan Museum reveals design for new $550m wing for Modern and contemporary art

Designs for the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing, conceived by the architect Frida Escobedo, show a stepped exterior of latticed limestone

Benjamin Sutton
Museums & Heritagenews
24 August 2021

Museu de Arte de São Paulo plans to tunnel its way through to a new 14-storey building

The Lina Bo Bardi-designed museum in Brazil can currently only display 1% of its 11,000-piece collection

Gabriella Angeleti