The New Museum began as an idea in the mind of founding Director Marcia Tucker. As a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1967 through 1976, Tucker observed firsthand that new work by living artists was not easily assimilated into the conventional exhibition and collection structure of the traditional art museum. The care and attention that these venerable institutions lavished on older, established artists and artworks was not yet being extended to art being made in the present. Interested in bringing the scholarly practices of these older institutions to younger artists and their work, Tucker imagined an institution devoted to presenting, studying, and interpreting contemporary art. When Tucker officially founded the New Museum on January 1, 1977, it was the first museum devoted to contemporary art established in New York City since the Second World War. Positioned between a traditional museum and an alternative space, the New Museum’s stated mission was to be a catalyst for a broad dialogue between artists and the public by establishing “an exhibition, information, and documentation center for contemporary art made within a period of approximately ten years prior to the present.” The Museum presented the work of living artists who did not yet have wide public exposure or critical acceptance to a broader public. The first New Museum exhibition was organized by Tucker at C Space, an alternative space not far from the Museum’s temporary offices on Hudson Street in Tribeca. Entitled “Memory,” the exhibition reflected on connections between personal and collective memory, a meditation on the function of the museum and the making of cultural history. This show—like every New Museum exhibition that has followed—was accompanied by a catalogue, documenting the exhibition for present and future audiences. In July 1977, the New Museum moved to a small gallery and office located at the New School for Social Research at 65 Fifth Avenue at 14th Street. The space was donated to the Museum by Trustee Vera List to provide a temporary home until the New Museum could find a more permanent space. Early exhibitions were organized by curators Allan Schwartzman, Susan Logan, and Marcia Tucker. In 1983, Board President Henry (Hank) Luce III negotiated a long-term lease for the New Museum in the Astor Building in SoHo at 583 Broadway, between Houston and Prince Streets, where the New Museum had a much larger gallery space and offices, and, after a major renovation in 1997, a bookstore with an international selection of publications on art, theory, and culture at large. Throughout the 1980s, the exhibition program encompassed monographic exhibitions of emerging artists and group shows organized around important social and political issues by curators Lynn Gumpert, Ned Rifkin, and Brian Wallis. Examples of the first type included early solo presentations by Joan Jonas (1984), Martin Puryear (1984), Leon Golub (1984), Linda Montano (1984), Allen Ruppersberg (1985), Kim Jones (1986), Hans Haacke (1987), Bruce Nauman (1987), Christian Boltanski (1988), Ana Mendieta (1988), Nancy Spero (1989), and Mary Kelly (1990), while the multi-artist exhibitions “Art and Ideology” (1984), “Difference: On Representation and Sexuality” (1984), and “Damaged Goods: Desire and the Economy of the Object” (1986) established the Museum’s reputation for engaging with postmodernism and critical theory. This was supported by an expanded publication program, particularly the series Documentary Sources in Contemporary Art. The first volume in this series Art After Modernism: Rethinking Representation (1984) is an interdisciplinary collection of texts on contemporary art criticism, initially edited by Brian Wallis, which has become a touchstone of postmodernist scholarship. Beginning in the late 1980s, with exhibitions organized by curators William Olander and Laura Trippi, the New Museum placed increasing emphasis on areas other than painting and sculpture, and presented film, video, television, photography, and performance works as a regular part of the exhibition program. When Dan Cameron and Gerardo Mosquera joined the curatorial department in 1996, the exhibition program began to focus increasingly on solo exhibitions by significant international artists who had not yet received attention in the US, including Mona Hatoum (1998), Doris Salcedo (1998), Xu Bing (1998), Cildo Meireles (2000), William Kentridge (2001), Marlene Dumas (2002), and Hélio Oiticica (2002). The program also continued to include influential older artists who were not yet widely recognized, such as Carolee Schneemann (1996), Martha Rosler (2000), Paul McCarthy (2001), and Carroll Dunham (2003). The Museum’s mission to show only living artists was also officially amended so that work by recently deceased artists—particularly in the wake of the AIDS crisis—could be displayed and memorialized. By 1999, when Lisa Phillips was appointed Director, the Museum’s program had far outstripped the limited gallery spaces of 583 Broadway, and in 2002, the New Museum announced plans to construct a new building designed to accommodate the dynamic scale of public events, exhibitions, and educational activities. After an international competition, Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA Ltd. were selected to design the New Museum’s first dedicated building to be located in a former parking lot on the Bowery. On December 1, 2007, the New Museum re-opened at 235 Bowery with facilities including a theater, five floors of gallery spaces, and a distinctive Sky Room with panoramic views of lower Manhattan. The inaugural exhibition, curated by Richard Flood, Chief Curator, Laura Hoptman, Senior Curator, and Massimiliano Gioni, Director of Special Exhibitions, was “Unmonumental,” an international group show in four parts that examined the medium of sculpture in contemporary art practices. Today, the New Museum serves diverse and expanding audiences, including artists, students, and residents of the Lower East Side, as well as a growing international audience through new initiatives, such as the Museum as Hub and 2011’s Festival of Ideas for a New City, which continue to foster dialogues between artists and their public.

Bisazza is one of the top luxury brands in the design sector and the industry’s leading producer of glass mosaics for interior and exterior decoration. Over the past few years, the company has extended its decorative offerings with new materials made through processes that combine the value of design with the charm of craftsmanship. Established by Renato Bisazza in 1956 in Alte, Vicenza, Northern Italy, the company has become a trailblazer, marked by a dynamic entrepreneurial spirit, a mastery of modern technologies, and an ability to read and anticipate the needs of the global market. The company’s distribution network currently includes 4 flagship stores in  London, Milan, New York and Paris and 2,800 local retailers around the world. Bisazza’s brand strategy is to offer a wide range of luxury decor and furnishing solutions, suitable for any living and outdoor area -- the expression of a unique style that brings a contemporary flair to the classic by combining elements of fashion and design. For more than twenty-five years the company has been working with internationally renowned designers, becoming a reference point in the world of design. Unique collections grew out of intense collaborative partnerships with leading figures in the worlds of architecture, art, design and fashion, such as: Tord Boontje, Aldo Cibic, Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel, Sandro Chia, Carlo Dal Bianco, Romeo Gigli, Michael Graves, Jaime Hayon, Alessandro Mendini, Paola Navone, Nendo, India Mahdavi, Fabio Novembre, Fabrizio Plessi, Andrée Putman, Ettore Sottsass, Studio Job, Patricia Urquiola, Edward Van Vliet , Marcel Wanders and the EMILIO PUCCI fashion house. Since 2005 Bisazza has been part of Altagamma, an association of Italian companies operating at the highest end of the market, whether in the fields of design, fashion, cuisine, jewelry, catering and hospitality. In 2006, Bisazza launched Home, the first collection of furniture and home accessories combining mosaics and other luxury materials. In 2011, Bisazza Bagno, a new division of the company, was created, dedicated to the production and distribution of bathroom collections. Bisazza Bagno is a natural extension of the Bisazza brand and was created to complement the company’s already vast product line for both private clients as well as the hotel industry and high-end contract sector. 2015 marks the debut of BISAZZA CEMENTILES collection, a new line featuring a contemporary, sophisticated interpretation of traditional cement tiles typically used in the palaces and mansions of nobility and the privileged classes during the second half of the 1800s and early 1900s. With CEMENTILES collection, Bisazza blends design value with the appeal of artisan craftsmanship and expands its product line for the interior decor of both private homes and trendy public venues. In early June 2012, Fondazione Bisazza, a new cultural space dedicated to contemporary design and architecture, was inaugurated. In addition to the works and installations created by internationally celebrated designers for Bisazza, the Fondazione halls will also host a series of temporary exhibitions from renowned museums and institutions around the world.