Studio Museum in Harlem
art museum in New York, New York
The Studio Museum in Harlem is an African-American art museum at 144 West 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Founded in 1968, the museum collects, preserves and interprets art created by African Americans, members of the African diaspora, and artists from the African continent. Its scope includes exhibitions, artists-in-residence programs, educational and public programming, and a permanent collection. The museum building was demolished and replaced in the 2020s; a new building on the site opened in November 2025.
Since opening in a rented loft at Fifth Avenue and 125th Street, the Studio Museum has earned recognition for its role in promoting the works of artists of African descent. The museum's Artist-in-Residence program has supported over one hundred graduates who have gone on to highly regarded careers. A wide variety of educational and public programs include lectures, dialogues, panel discussions and performances, as well as interpretive programs, both on- and off-site, for students and teachers. The exhibitions program has also expanded the scope of art historical literature through the production of scholarly catalogues, brochures, and pamphlets.
History
The idea that became the Studio Museum was developed by a diverse group of founders in the belief that the African-American community should include a museum as part of its everyday experience, and to reflect their interests. Mahler B. Ryder was a founding secretary.
The public source identifies “Studio Museum in Harlem” as art museum in New York, New York. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Studio, Museum and Harlem.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q903403. VIAF identifies the subject as 147666237. The Library of Congress control number is n82089110. Authority coordinates are 40.808, -73.948. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968 and 2025.
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This entry incorporates text from “Studio Museum in Harlem” 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.