New Museum's longtime director to retire after building expansion opens

""The reopening of this expanded campus presents the ideal moment to pass the baton to a new generation of leaders who will guide the institution into its next chapter," Phillips said in a statement. "I am immensely proud of all the work we have accomplished together, taking our future-forward institution into a new era with a strong foundation, a vibrant and diverse audience, and an expanded complex of two contiguous buildings that will enable ever more ambitious programming.""

"When Phillips joined the New Museum 26 years ago, it was based in a rented space in Manhattan's Soho district. Subsequently, like much of New York's contemporary art scene, the museum relocated to Chelsea, renting space inside the since-shuttered Chelsea Art Museum. Then, in late 2007, the institution moved into a purpose-built home on the Bowery, designed by the architecture firm Sanaa."

Lisa Phillips will retire as director of the New Museum in April 2026 after 26 years leading the institution. Under Phillips, the museum moved from a rented Soho space to Chelsea and into a purpose-built Sanaa-designed building on the Bowery in 2007. The Bowery building closed last year while an $82 million expansion designed by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas of OMA with Cooper Robertson is built next door to double exhibition space; reopening is scheduled for autumn. Phillips will take the title director emeritus and will curate an exhibition next year chronicling the Bowery’s artistic and cultural significance.

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