Museum of Primitive Art (New York, N.Y.)

The Museum of Primitive Art (MPA), New York, was the first art museum in the United States founded specifically to exhibit the traditional arts of Africa, Oceania, and Native and Precolumbian America. Formerly located at 13 and 15 West 54 Street, the museum was open to the public from 1957 to 1974, after which it became part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Museum of Primitive Art played a significant role in the development of audiences, appreciation, education, and understanding of non-European sculpture through innovative exhibitions and publications.

The Museum of Primitive Art was founded by Nelson A. Rockefeller in association with René d'Harnoncourt, then President of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Rockefeller was a long-time collector and patron of the arts in addition to serving as governor of New York from 1959-1973 and Vice-President of the United States from 1974 to 1977.

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