New Museum Announces Fall Exhibitions, Opening in October

Starting in October, the New Museum (235 Bowery) will present two contemporary thematic group exhibitions: "The Last Newspaper" and "Free." From October 6th to January 9th, "The Last Newspaper" will be presented on the third through fifth floors. "Free" will be located on the second floor from October 20th to January 23rd.

"The Last Newspaper" is a major exhibition inspired by the ways artists approach the news and respond to the stories and images that command the headlines. The exhibition will animate the Museum with signature artworks and a constant flow of information-gathering and processing undertaken by organizations and artist groups that have been invited to inhabit offices within the museum's galleries. Partner organizations will use onsite offices to present their research, engage in rapid prototyping, and stage public dialogues, opening up the galleries as spaces of intellectual production as well as display. For visitors, "The Last Newspaper" will be a unique site of dialogue, participation, and critical thinking, posing new possibilities for a contemporary art museum experience. The exhibition is co curated by Richard Flood, Chief Curator of the New Museum, and Benjamin Godsill, Curatorial Associate.

Today, culture is more dispersed than ever before. The web has broadened both the quantity and kind of information freely available. It has distributed our collective experience across geographic locations; opened up a new set of creative possibilities; and, coextensively, produced a set of challenges. This fall, the New Museum will present "Free," an exhibition including twenty-three artists working across mediums-including video, installation, sculpture, photography, the internet, and sound-that reflects artistic strategies that have emerged in a radically democratized landscape redefined by the impact of the web. The exhibition makes a case for a newly formed public art that responds to a vastly more connected society whose true openness is still being negotiated. The philosophy of free culture, and its advocacy for open sharing, informs the exhibition, but is not its subject. Instead, the title and featured works present a complex picture of the new freedoms and constraints that underlie our expanded public space. "Free" is curated by Lauren Cornell, Executive Director of Rhizome and New Museum Adjunct Curator.

General admission is $12, seniors are $10, students are $8, members and those under 18 are free. The Museum is closed to the public on Mondays and Tuesdays. The hours on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are from 11AM to 6PM. The hours on Thursdays at 11AM to 9PM with free admission from 7PM to 9PM. Founded in 1977, the New Museum is a leading destination for new art and new ideas. It is Manhattan's only dedicated contemporary art museum and is respected internationally for the adventurousness and global scope of its curatorial program. More information can be found at www.newmuseum.org.

Photo Credit: Judith Bernstein, Are You Running With Me Jesus?, 1967, Charcoal and mixed media on paper, 40 x 26 in. Courtesy The Box. Via The New Museum website.