MoMA Extends Museum Hours During Summer Months

Live Music Also Returns to the Sculpture Garden with Summergarden and MoMA Nights

New York, - The Museum of Modern Art will be extending its hours from July 1 through September 3, keeping the museum open until 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (with the exception of Saturday, July 9) evenings, and opening its doors from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays (July 5 through August 30), a day the Museum is usually closed, providing the public with more opportunities to enjoy the Museum’s renowned collection and special exhibitions. Also this summer, live music performances return to MoMA’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden in July and August.

For MoMA Nights in July and August, MoMA is open until 8:30 p.m. every Thursday, with live music presented in two sets, at 5:30 and 7:00 p.m., in the Sculpture Garden (weather permitting). MoMA Nights concerts are free with Museum admission and feature an international and innovative selection of live music. The 2011 series focuses on musical acts that mine a specific genre and give it a personal imprint. The musicians take idioms codified by previous generations and add idiosyncratic touches that reflect geographic and chronological distance, as well as personal artistic temperament. The series will launch on July 7 with a Brazilian group to celebrate this summer’s edition of Premiere Brazil!, MoMA’s annual collaboration with the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival. In August, one concert ties in with the exhibition Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to Now. Further concert details will be available in mid-May. This is the fourth MoMA Nights music series organized in collaboration with Olivier Conan, programmer and co-owner of Barbès performance space in Brooklyn.

During MoMA Nights, there will be a cash bar (specialty cocktails, draft beer, wine, and nonalcoholic beverages) and seasonal tapas for purchase in the Sculpture Garden. The Garden Bar will sell local gelati and sorbetti, ice cream sandwiches, and cookies, as well as wine, beer, and specialty coffees. Terrace 5, on the fifth floor of the Museum, will offer wines and salumi in an ―urban picnic‖ in addition to the regular à la carte menu presented by chef Lynn Bound.

This year’s free Summergarden series once again welcomes the participation of two constituents from Lincoln Center—The Juilliard School and Jazz at Lincoln Center—with concerts in the Sculpture Garden (weather permitting) on Sundays, July 10 through 31. New Music for New York presents four evenings of adventurous contemporary music, with premieres each night. Members of The New Juilliard Ensemble, under the artistic direction of Joel Sachs, perform on July 10 and 24 with two distinctive programs of contemporary compositions, all of which are enjoying their New York, United States, Western Hemisphere, or world premieres. Jazz at Lincoln Center has selected two leading jazz groups whose concerts, on July 17 and 31, emphasize original works, each with one world premiere. The Garden Bar will sell gelati and seasonal sorbetti from il laboratorio del gelato, homemade cookies, and Cafe 2’s signature ice cream sandwich. Wine, champagne, American craft beer, specialty coffees, and bottled water are also available for purchase.

In addition to the Museum’s collection, special exhibitions on view this summer include
Talk To Me (July 24–November 7) and Carlito Carvalhosa: Sum of Days (August 24–November 14). Film exhibitions include Pixar Revisited (June 25–July 9) and Crafting Genre: Kathryn Bigelow (June 1–August 13). Please visit MoMA.org for more information on upcoming exhibitions.

MoMA has offered free admission to active military personal and one guest. MoMA is now expanding this offer to include active military personnel and all their adult family members.

General Museum admission is $20 adults; $16 seniors (65 years and over with I.D.); $12 full-time students with current I.D. Free for Museum members and children 16 and under.

SUMMER HOURS, JULY 1 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 3: Mondays: 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Tuesdays: OPEN 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. (July 5–August 30)
Wednesdays: 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Thursdays: 10:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. (July 7–September 1)
Fridays: 10:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. (July 1–September 2). Target Free Friday Nights begin at 4:00 p.m.*
Saturdays: 10:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. (July 2– September 3. On July 9 the Museum will close at 5:30 p.m.)
Sundays: 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
*Please note that after the summer extended hours program concludes after Labor Day weekend, the closing time of Target Free Friday Nights will revert back to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, September 9.

SUMMERGARDEN:
July 10—Juilliard concert 1
July 17—Jazz at Lincoln Center concert 1
July 24—Juilliard concert 2
July 31—Jazz at Lincoln Center concert 2
8:00 p.m., The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden (weather permitting)
Summergarden is free and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden may close if attendance reaches maximum capacity. Entrance to Summergarden is through the Sculpture Garden gate on West 54 Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. The Sculpture Garden opens at 7:00 p.m., and concerts start at 8:00 p.m. and run approximately one hour to 90 minutes. The Sculpture Garden closes at 10:00 p.m. In the event of rain, concerts will be held in The Agnes Gund Garden Lobby, and the Museum’s 54th Street entrance will open at 7:30 p.m. The exhibition galleries are closed during Summergarden.

Major annual support for Summergarden is provided by The Ethel P. Shein Fund for Music at MoMA, which is generously funded by Agnes Gund. Additional support is provided by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Paul D. Shein, and Elizabeth Pozen.

MoMA NIGHTS:
Thursdays, July 7, 14, 21, 28, and August 4, 11, 18, 25, 2011
Music sets at 5:30 and 7:00 p.m., The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden (weather permitting)
Regular admission applies. In the event of rain, the Sculpture Garden will close, and the concert and cash bar will move indoors. Sculpture Garden and indoor seating are limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.

----