Grey Art Museum

The Grey, as it’s fondly called, is the perfect example of what a university museum can be. We venture here often to look, learn, and travel without leaving home.

Exhibitions here focus on how artists translate their worlds into visual stories that show us the world in all its wideness: from Post-War French Abstraction and lesser-known works by female artists to queer art made post-Stonewall and Modern painting from Iran, Turkey, and India.

If art has a truth and an idea in it, it's usually brought to light at The Grey. We always leave with the distinct feeling of having truly traveled somewhere else, whether the cities where artists live or the enchanting inner worlds they dream up.

This is a museum founded with a purpose and soul: a mission to advance art history and visual literacy at NYU. It started in 1927 as the Museum of Living Art, and was the first American institution to exhibit works by Picasso, Léger, Miró, Mondrian, and Arp. In 1974, it was renamed after philanthropist Abby Weed Grey, who donated a groundbreaking collection of modern art from Asia and the Middle East. After decades on Washington Square, it relocated to Cooper Square in 2024, adding glorious new spaces to better showcase the permanent collections and rotating exhibitions.