Today, rumorshave swirled about a new museum in New York's Lower East side dedicated to Andy Warhol. We asked The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh if they were involved in the new institution, and they send us their official statement in an email:
The Andy Warhol Museum, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, along with the other collaborators of this potential gallery space/annex in the Essex Crossing development, are excited about the possibilities and opportunities it could bring for us and to Manhattan's Lower East Side. Our hopes for this collaborative gallery, which would feature Warhol's work, is to further energize this exciting urban development project in Warhol's beloved New York.
While this does not confirm that the New York location will be a satellite gallery for the Pittsburg museum (vaguely calling it a "space/annex"—which one is it?), the Wall Street Journal describes the project as "the New York annex of the Andy Warhol Museum." We have yet to see how the two institutions will be linked.
The plan for the New York Warhol museum is part of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA), a long inactive initiative that would completely transform downtown Manhattan. On Tuesday, the winning project was finally announced after years of failure to make headway on SPURA. The winning proposal is called Essex Crossing, designed by SHoP Architects and Beyer Blinder. Artinfo reports that "the Andy Warhol Museum" was listed in the Essex Crossing press release.
Besides the museum, the plan for Essex Crossing includes office buildings, retail space, a school, a rooftop urban garden, a community center, and an expansion to Essex Market.
Whether The Andy Warhol Museum, The Andy Warhol Foundation, or some other Warhol lover is behind the king of pop art's New York outpost, we just hope the museum opens up on the island.
RELATED: 15 Things You Didn't Know About the Andy Warhol Museum
[via Artinfo]
