American Folk Art Museum
folk art museum in New York City, NY
The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, at 2 Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creative expressions of contemporary self-taught artists from the United States and abroad.
Its collection holds approximately 7,500 objects from the 18th century to the present. These works span both traditional folk art and the work of modern and contemporary self-taught artists and Art Brut. In its ongoing exhibitions, educational programming, and outreach, the museum showcases the creative expressions of individuals whose talents developed without formal artistic training. Since 2018, the Museum has been led by Jason T. Busch, Becky and Bob Alexander Director & CEO. In March 2025, readers of Newsweek magazine voted the American Folk Art Museum #1 in the publication's Best Art Museum 2025 readers' choice contest.
Admission to the museum is free.
History
Since receiving a provisional charter in 1961, the American Folk Art Museum has continually expanded its mission and purview. At its inception, the museum lacked a permanent collection, an endowment, and a building. Despite lacking these institutional fixtures, founding Trustees Joseph B. Martinson and Adele Earnest had a vision: the advancement of the understanding and appreciation of American folk arts.
The public source identifies “American Folk Art Museum” as folk art museum in New York City, NY. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around American, Folk and Museum.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q464354. VIAF identifies the subject as 121868545. The Library of Congress control number is n2001009222. Authority coordinates are 40.762, -73.978. 4 of 8 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2018, 2025 and 1961.
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This entry incorporates text from “American Folk Art Museum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.