Grey Art Museum

The Grey is exactly what a university museum should be—a place to look, learn, and travel the world without leaving New York City.

Walk in, and you might find yourself in post-war Paris, surrounded by French Abstraction, or in post-Stonewall New York, when queer artists were making work that commercial galleries ignored. Or in Tehran, Mumbai, Istanbul, cities that shaped art history, but before the Grey, they rarely got wall space in American galleries.

The exhibitions here translate distant worlds into something you can stand in front of and voyage inside for a moment. It's a gift—free admission, deep commitment to downtown art, exhibitions that wouldn't happen anywhere else.

The Grey started in 1927 as the Museum of Living Art—the first American institution to show Picasso, Léger, Miró, Mondrian, and Arp. In 1974, it was renamed after Abby Weed Grey, who donated her collection of modern art from Asia and the Middle East. After decades on Washington Square, it moved to Cooper Square in 2024, adding new exhibition spaces for the permanent collection and rotating shows. The mission: advance art history and visual literacy at NYU.