Grey Art Gallery & Study Center

The Grey Art Gallery is New York University's fine arts museum whose function is to collect, preserve, study, document, interpret, and exhibit the evidence of human culture. the Grey distinguishes itself by emphasizing art's historical, cultural, and social contexts, with experimentation and interpretation as integral parts of programmatic planning. Thus, in addition to being a place to view the objects of material culture, the Gallery serves as a museum-laboratory in which a broader view of an object's environment enriches our understanding of its contribution to civilization.

The Grey Gallery and Student Center was inagurated on April 9, 1975 at 100 Washington Square East/33 Washington Place in the Silver Center building. Located on the site of the original New York University building (1835-1892), it was here that the nation’s first art department headed by Professor Samuel Morse was established. In 1927 Albert E. Gallatin, son of an NYU chemistry professor, established what is considered to be the first museum of modern art in the United States on the same site called the Gallery of Living Art. Later renamed Museum of Living Art, its collection consisted of contemporary paintings and drawings by creative and progressive artists. The museum was closed-down by the university in 1943 due to economic reasons.

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