[title]
For the past decade, NYC's ambitious Climate Museum has operated through pop-ups and events that have welcomed more than 100,000 people. Now, the museum will become a fixture of the city with a permanent brick-and-mortar location in midtown.
Though the new home is "several years off," per museum officials, it will eventually become a 24,000-square-foot space for climate-related arts and culture exhibits. The Climate Museum's three-story gallery will be the cultural and community anchor of a massive new mixed-use development on the West Side at 11th Avenue and 34th Street steps from the Javits Center.
RECOMMENDED: The best museum exhibitions in NYC right now
Founded in 2015, The Climate Museum is the first museum in the United States dedicated to climate change. The non-profit seeks to inspire action through the power of arts and cultural programming, like art installations, history exhibits and special events. While planning and construction are underway, the museum will continue to present free exhibitions and events elsewhere in the city as it has for the past decade.
This means more climate dialogue and action–moving us closer to a safe and just future.
"As the first museum in the United States dedicated to climate change, we are excited to announce that we will now have a permanent home," Miranda Massie, founder and director of The Climate Museum, said in a press release. "Our exhibitions have already inspired waves of civic action. This permanent, year-round space will make our signature, interactive arts and cultural programming more accessible to more people. Ultimately, this means more climate dialogue and action–moving us closer to a safe and just future."
Last year, The Climate Museum hosted a free exhibition called "The End of Fossil Fuel," which intended to replace climate despair with action.
"Most people in the U.S. are very concerned about the climate crisis but feel overwhelmed or intimidated or complicit, or, for a whole bunch of reasons, feel silenced, and like they can't do anything to address this thing that's weighing on them," as Massie told Time Out in an interview about that exhibit. "The Climate Museum addresses that by giving people a way to connect with each other, to learn, and to move forward with a sense of determination and resolve and optimism that we can do this."
"The End of Fossil Fuels" was one of 13 exhibitions The Climate Museum has presented in the last six years. The staff has worked in partnership with including Rockefeller Center, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Trust for Governors Island and Parsons/The New School. They've also held more than 350 events, such as panels, workshops and performances.
"The Climate Museum’s new permanent location will provide New Yorkers and visitors with increased opportunities to experience climate arts and community and take action to combat climate change, and will bolster the climate actions and commitments of New York City itself," museum officials said.
Its location, near Penn Station, the Javits Center and Hudson Yards, indicates that the museum will be able to reach an international crowd, as well as New Yorkers.
The museum's new home is part of a proposal for the site by the Moinian Group, Boston Properties and BRP Companies, designed by FXCollaborative, that was chosen by New York State. It will be designed by the architecture firm FXCollaborative and is a $1.35 billion project. In addition to housing The Climate Museum, the land—one of the last remaining state-owned parcels in Manhattan, will also include 1,349 apartments, a hotel and more.