SculptureCenter's New Building. Photo: Michael Moran.
SculptureCenter is a not-for-profit, contemporary art museum located in Long Island City, Queens, New York City. It was founded in 1928 as "The Clay Club" by Dorothea Denslow.[1] In 2013, SculptureCentre attracted around 13,000 visitors.[2]
SculptureCenter soon moved to 8 West Fourth Street in the West Village in 1932 and then, in 1948, to a carriage house at 167 East 69th Street on the Upper East Side, where it operated a school with artists’ studios.[2] The offerings included clay and wax modeling, stone and wood carving, welding, figure studies and portraits. There were are also after-school classes for children.[3]
In 2001, SculptureCenter's board closed both the school and the studios, sold the carriage house for $4.75 million and invested the proceeds in reinventing the organization in Queens as a European-style kunsthalle.[3][2] The board also commissioned architects Maya Lin and David Hotson to transform a derelict brick building into an exhibition space of 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) with forty-foot-high ceilings and reinforced-concrete floors.[4]
In 2014, SculptureCenter underwent a 14-month, $4.5 million expansion and renovation led by architect Andrew Berman,[5] including a 2,000-square-foot (190 m2) addition, aimed at improving visitor experience and increasing exhibition space to 6,700 sq ft (620 m2), plus a 1,500 sq ft (140 m2) enclosed courtyard for outdoor exhibitions and events.[6]
As a non-collecting museum, its annual program includes approximately three exhibition cycles of 1–2 commissioning programs by mid-career artists, 10–15 projects and commissions by emerging artists, and 3–6 solo and group exhibitions. SculptureCenter offers free public programs and events including artist talks, performances, film screenings, and publications.[8]
^Papanikolas, Theresa and Stephen Salel, Stephen, Abstract Expressionism, Looking East from the Far West, Honolulu Museum of Art, 2017, ISBN9780937426920, p. 19
