Tang Wing for American Democracy Debuts at New York Historical Society
The Robert A.M. Stern Architects-designed addition offers an expansive new space in the Society’s Central Park West headquarters
New York’s oldest museum has a new expansion just in time for America’s 250th anniversary, and its subject matter couldn’t be more current. This week, the New York Historical Society opens the doors to the new Tang Wing for American Democracy to the public. Designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, the 71,000 feet of new space includes classrooms, the very fun Stuart and Jane Weitzman Shoe Museum, the expansive Klingenstein Family Gallery, an outdoor sculpture garden where statues of Hamilton and Burr prepare to duel at the actual distance of their paces from each other, a state-of-the-art conservation studio, and much more. In 2028, the Tang Wing will also become the home of the American LGBTQ+ Museum.
“We are here today to celebrate this new wing dedicated to the teaching of American history and American democracy, because it is a culmination of 222 years of engaged citizenship, and of our assiduous, assiduous examination of American history, the good, the bad, the ugly, but also the beautiful of our history, our history that began as a revolution by many, and endures, and will endure as an evolution of democracy for all,” Agnes Hsu Tang, the chairwoman of the New York Historical Society Board of Trustees, said at a preview on Tuesday.
“Democracy Matters,” the Tang Wing’s inaugural exhibition, relishes its opportunity to reclaim the American story for a diverse, cosmopolitan population. Some of the objects on view here include the fragments of a statue of George III that New Yorkers smashed after hearing the Declaration of Independence read to them for the first time, photos of the Stonewall riots, a pink camouflage crochet full-coverage bodysuit worn at the Women’s March in 2017, Norman Rockwell posters illustrating the Four Freedoms, the wooden chair that George Washington sat on during his first inauguration as President in downtown Manhattan, the pro-ERA suffragette-inspired gown that Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney wore to the Met Gala in 2021, a portrait of Dred Scott, a Torah scroll burned by British soldiers, and a Roberto Lugo Ancient Greek-style urn illustrating the story of the Central Park Five.
“What has happened in sort of the last couple of decades is that people have equated patriotism or feeling patriotic, patriotic fervor with a particular political point of view,” Dr. Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of NYHS, tells Galerie. “We don’t aim to make people feel that embracing American ideals is a political statement. We, see it as ideals that have been embraced over time by a huge, hugely diverse population.” At a time when different kinds of American experiences and perspectives are critiqued for authenticity, the Tang Wing speaks up for the cultural validity of the urban American experience.
The storytelling style in the installations within exhibits like “Revolutionary Women” is nuanced, balanced, and nonjudgmental. Individuals are written back into history for their accomplishments, their flaws in the eyes of the 21st Century are acknowledged, and fully human portraits emerge. “What we’re hoping to do with the new staging is to invite everyone into the story of American history,” says Mirrer, adding, “It’s an honest story that we tell. So it doesn’t skirt around struggle. It doesn’t skirt around stories that don’t at all times live up to the original American ideals, but which is focused on and located in a real celebration of those founding ideals that have been really struggled for over a long period of time.”
The addition stayed pleasantly on schedule, and the New York Historical Society enjoyed a supportive relationship with colleagues at the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Mirrer also singled out the internal design team’s contributions: “A lot of cultural institutions these days…don’t have internal design teams that are sufficiently robust to pull off the installations in the galleries, as ours has done. I think that tends to be invisible to people once the building is up and you need to fill it with beautiful installations.” All parties were united in wanting an addition that would merge well with the building’s earlier design. They succeeded. The exterior of the Tang Wing, visible from 76th Street, is made with granite from the same quarry in Deer Isle, Maine, that provided stone for the main building in 1908. With a few seasons of weathering, only an architecture major or a close neighbor will likely have any immediate perception that the 76th Street facade wasn’t always there.
The view from the new roof deck is remarkable. In addition to a swathe of the Central Park West neighborhood, the deck affords a slice-of-life glance into the roof gardens and picnic spaces atop the houses on neighboring 76th street. The Roof Garden feels destined to become a New York classic. It will eventually be landscaped by Nelson Byrd Woltz with a planted garden filled with native plantings. Better still: Mirrer informed Galerie that the Roof Garden’s donor stipulated in their gift agreement that refreshment must be served there. When queried, she added, regarding the sort of refreshments, “I don’t know about a bar. New York City is rather draconian in its regulation of where alcohol can be served, but at the very least, we will be serving refreshments, one kind or another.”
