American Folk Art Museum, New York City

The American Folk Art Museum has existed in various forms, and at various locations, since it was founded in 1961. The museum opened in its permanent location on West 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan (New York City, USA) on December 11, 2001. The building housing its collection was designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, a firm based in New York.

The museum was originally named the Museum of Early American Folk Arts, and in these years it always seemed on the brink of going bankrupt. Indeed, some of the permanent collection was auctioned off in the early 1970s just to raise money. Robert Bishop served as director from 1977 until his death in 1991, and is commonly considered the museum’s savior for his fund-raising abilities.

The museum has always had difficulty maintaining a balance between early American folk art and contemporary self-taught art that will please patrons in both camps. In the early 1990s, the board of trustees was wary about the value of the contemporary art. According to president Ralph Esmerian, “We felt the 20th-century work was more of an urban pill, not from the countryside where the real folk art was from.”

In recent years it has more fully embraced the contemporary side, establishing a “Contemporary Center” in the new space and established the Henry Darger study center. In time for its 2001 opening, it changed names from the Museum of American Folk Art to the American Folk Art Museum, a subtle shift that now allows it to acquire global works such as those of Indian outsider artist Nek Chand.