Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200

Installation view, Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200, February 28, 2025–February 22, 2026. Brooklyn Museum. (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)

The sweeping exhibition, presented in three parts, marks the Museum’s anniversary year by exploring the collection’s rich history and evolution.

From groundbreaking early acquisitions to striking new additions, the Brooklyn Museum’s collection has long championed artists and artworks that catalyze imaginative storytelling and brave conversations. As the Museum commemorates its 200th anniversary, Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200 celebrates its unique legacy. Comprising three sections that boast long-time favorites and brand-new standouts, the exhibition brings fresh narratives to the fore while exploring the collection’s rich history and evolution. Breaking the Mold is organized by curators across the institution, featuring works from all collection areas.

Tony Velez. Entrance Gates to Greenwood Cemetery, Sunset Park, (5th Avenue and 23rd Street), Brooklyn, NY, 1990.Gelatin silver print.BrooklynMuseum,GiftofVictorH. Kempster, 1991.306.9. © Tony Velez. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

“This exhibition is a celebration of everything the Brooklyn Museum represents,” says Catherine Futter, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Senior Curator of Decorative Arts. ”As we mark the Museum’s 200th anniversary, this exhibition contextualizes the current moment in our long, remarkable history as a premier cultural destination in Brooklyn, New York City, and beyond.”

Alex Katz. Ada, 1950s. Oil on board. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the artist, in honor of the Brooklyn Museum’s 200th Anniversary, 2023.44.1. © 2024 Alex Katz / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Three chapters—Brooklyn Made, Building the Museum and Its Collection, and Gifts of Art in Honor of the 200th— examine foundational aspects of the Museum’s story. Through works spanning time, geography, and medium, the exhibition introduces viewers to Brooklyn’s artistic communities, the history of the Museum’s building and collection, and recent gifts made in honor of the 200th anniversary.

Installation view, Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200, February 28, 2025–February 22, 2026. Brooklyn Museum. (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)

Brooklyn Made pays homage to the borough’s artists and designers from the seventeenth century to today. Beginning with a pair of Delaware Lenape youth moccasins to acknowledge the land’s original inhabitants, this section journeys through time to spotlight works by contemporary Brooklyn-based artists such as KAWS, Duke Riley, and Tourmaline. Some works speak to the diversity of artists and manufacturers who have called Brooklyn home, while others consider outsiders’ fascination, documentation, and exploration of the borough as a place with a provocative history and the subject of popular imagination. Spanning the Museum’s vast collection, from decorative arts and design to painting, photography, and works on paper, as well as its immersive period rooms, these works illuminate the borough’s rich histories, including those of its many immigrant communities. Presented throughout the space are historical and contemporary images of Brooklyn, depicting its performances, protests, architecture and design, landscapes and waterways, and, most importantly, its people.

N. Jay Jaffee. Kishke King (Pitkin Avenue, Brownsville), 1953, printed 1995. Selenium-toned gelatin silver print. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Paula W. Hackeling, 1997.164.33. © The N. Jay Jaffee Trust (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Building the Museum and Its Collection features transformational artworks and archival materials that trace the development of the collection as well as the rich history of the Museum’s famed Beaux-Arts building. This section highlights the acquisitions, people, and programs that exemplify the Museum’s trailblazing engagement with the borough’s communities and the daring vision that has made it a cultural touchstone. Through works from across collection areas, including pieces rarely on view, set alongside materials from the Brooklyn Museum Archives, visitors will deepen their understanding of the Museum’s 200-year history.

Peter Halley. Plus One, 2019–20. Acrylic, fluorescent acrylic, and Roll-A-Tex on canvas. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Sasha and Edward P. Bass, in honor of the Brooklyn Museum’s 200th Anniversary, 2024.26. © Peter Halley. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Gifts of Art in Honor of the 200th Anniversary showcases extraordinary pieces of contemporary art, including painting, photography, video, and sculpture, given to the Museum by valued donors in honor of the 200th anniversary. Exemplary artworks by Robert Frank, Coco Fusco, Antony Gormley, Julie Mehretu, and Alex Katz are joined by contributions from influential artists working today in Brooklyn and beyond. The works in this section reveal how the collection continues to evolve to reflect our changing world, and new gifts will be added over the course of the exhibition.

Stephen Salmieri. Coney Island, 1969. Gelatin silver print. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Edward Klein, 82.201.4. © Stephen Salmieri. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Additional gifts are on view throughout the Museum, including selections from the Dennis Freedman collection on the fourth floor, Mark di Suvero’s sculpture Sooner or Later (2022) on the Plaza, and Liza Lou’s Trailer (1998–2000) in the Pavilion. Find out more about the Museum’s 2024 acquisitions, including those presented in this exhibition

Huastec artist. Life-Death Figure, 900–1250. Sandstone and pigment. Brooklyn Museum, Frank Sherman Benson Fund and the Henry L. Batterman Fund, 37.2897PA. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

CREDITS

Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200 is organized by Meghan Bill, Coordinator of Provenance; Abigail Dansiger, Director of Libraries and Archives; Catherine Futter, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Senior Curator of Decorative Arts; Liz St. George, Assistant Curator, Decorative Arts; and Pauline Vermare, Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator of Photography; with Kimberli Gant, Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art; Carmen Hermo, former Associate Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art; Michael Gibson-Prugh, Curatorial Assistant, Arts of the Americas and Europe; and Imani Williford, Curatorial Assistant, Photography, Fashion, and Material Culture.

Delaware artist. Youth Moccasins, ca. 1900. Hide, cloth, and beads. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Edward J. Guarino Collection in memory of Edgar J. Guarino, 2016.11.3a-b. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

The Brooklyn Museum gives thanks to the Curatorial Division for their collaboration on the development of Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200.

Significant support is provided by the Hooper Family—Dana Hooper and Alicia Swanson; John P. and Rebecca Hooper Cavanaugh; Gary W. and Abigail Hooper Conrad; and E. Bickford and Virginia Hooper Hooper—in honor of their late ancestor Professor Franklin William Hooper, who served as Director of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (1891–1913) and the Brooklyn Museum (1897–1913).

Installation view, Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200, February 28, 2025–February 22, 2026. Brooklyn Museum. (Photo: Timothy Doyon)

The exhibition is opened on February 28, 2025, and will be on view through February 22, 2026. Please visit the Brooklyn Museum’s site for more information about the exhibit. The Museum can also be found on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook.