Our Move To Manhattanville

Images of the Lenfest Center under construction, April 2015.

In Spring 2017, The Wallach Art Gallery will be among the first to move to Columbia's new "Manhattanville" campus where it will be part of a lively cultural center. The Lenfest Center for the Arts will face 125th Street, just west of Broadway, and across the street from Columbia University's existing arts studio building, Prentis Hall.

A state–of–the–art complex designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the Lenfest Center for the Arts will include a film/video screening room, a black box theatre, and a dramatic, large contemporary gallery space with an adjacent flexible–use floor for display, public events, and educational outreach. In our new home, greater visibility, doubled space, enhanced programming, and additional staff will propel The Wallach Art Gallery to a much more active role–not only by linking to the historical Morningside Heights campus five blocks south, but also by engaging more vigorously with the thriving cultural milieu that emanates from 125th Street.

The generous and founding endowment established by Miriam and Ira D. Wallach enables a wide range of exhibitions and related projects proposed by advanced graduate students and faculty in the department of Art History and Archaeology. As The Wallach Art Gallery looks toward 2017 and the new location we are building our resources in several areas in order to enable the dynamic, amplified program that we envision.

If you would like to help us build these resources, click HERE

Education

To enhance our existing adult public programming, free educational offerings will provide multiple entry points to art for persons of all ages. Educational programming will prioritize building long-term, ongoing affiliations with K–12 schools, community hubs, and senior centers surrounding our new campus. We will provide opportunities to consider a wide range of artistic production, encourage observation and critical thinking, spark curiosity, and create conversations. This effort is central to the welcoming and open spirit of our new campus.

Contemporary Art

Contemporary artists are vital in our communities: reflecting and commenting on society, questioning definitions, and dialoguing with history. Initiatives such as the MODA Curates series or the MFA end–of–year exhibitions introduce thought-provoking new talents, while also providing an overview of the exciting directions of art today. We involve living–and often local–artists in our public programs, ephemeral performances, or longer–term commissions for site–specific opportunities that enliven the campus at large.

Special Projects

The Distinctive & Special Collections of the University Libraries include, among others, Art Properties, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, and Rare Books & Manuscripts. The Wallach Art Gallery presents exhibitions that make these special collections visible and accessible to the public, offering the opportunity to engage intensely with Columbia's rich holdings. Such projects normally gestate over time, requiring conservation, documentation, and special preparation that then allow the holdings to be more broadly available.

Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellowships

Offered to recent Art History graduates, this competitive slot provides professional experience for those who present both an outstanding proposal for an exhibition at The Wallach Art Gallery, and a serious interest in curatorial work. Fellows will gain hands–on opportunity by participating in all aspects of the gallery's functioning while working to bring their exhibition to fruition. The Fellowship bridges academic experience with a practical component, as they participate in all stages of the implementation and presentation process: loans, budgeting, fundraising, editing, design, production, shipping, registration, educational programming, promotional strategies, media experience, staff, contractor, and public interface, and overall gallery administration.