Kick-Off Exhibition at Newly Reopened Downtown Museum Ponders, ‘To Be, or Bot to Be?’
The insight that “we shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us” (variously attributed to Marshall McLuhan and Winston Churchill, among others) might serve as the epigram for “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” the new contemporary art exhibition at the expanded and reopened New Museum (at 235 Bowery, near Prince Street). The institution began welcoming visitors back one week ago after a two-year construction hiatus. Taking its audience into the future (and the past), the New Humans show offers provocative conceptions of humanity, as our cultural evolution becomes ever-more entwined with the contraptions we have contrived.
At last week’s preview of the show, museum director Lisa Phillips fondly recalled the beginnings of the New Museum. “When they started in 1977,” she said, “they were a one-room gallery on Hudson Street with a volunteer staff of three.” Today ensconced in a 120,000-square-foot space in two conjoined buildings, the New Museum collaborates with art institutions around the world. At home, programs include panel discussions, book launches, Free Family Days on the first Sunday of every month, and a free, recurring, art-making experience for teens.
The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm, with pay-what-you-wish hours on Thursdays from 7pm to 9pm. Admission is $19 to $25 and free for visitors 18 and under.