Decolonizing Architecture: The Studio Museum Reopens with a 7-Story Statement

This isn’t just the unveiling of a new building; it’s a seven-story act of decolonizing architecture. The Studio Museum in Harlem’s custom-built, 82,000-square-foot home at 144 West 125th Street, opening Saturday, November 15, 2025, stands as a physical testament to collective agency and the institution’s legacy as the nexus for artists of African descent and the diaspora.

The design itself is performative: it blurs the boundaries between museum and street, transforming the threshold into a shared, communal space, a bold declaration of solidarity and accessibility. The inaugural programming carries equal weight, honoring activist and artist Tom Lloyd, whose groundbreaking work helped launch the museum in 1968.

This is more than a building. It is a monumental stage for the next movement of Black art, a rooted space that affirms the power of community, history, and imagination to reshape our future.