The Noguchi Museum

The Noguchi Museum Dedicated to Isamu Noguchi’s works, and programming with related modern and contemporary artists. 13 galleries and outdoor sculpture garden. Open Wed–Sun.
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Founded in 1985 by Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988), one of the leading sculptors and designers of the twentieth century, The Noguchi Museum was the first museum in America to be founded, designed, and installed by a living artist to show their own work. Widely viewed as among the artist’s greatest achievements, the Museum features an indoor/outdoor sculpture garden and two floors of exhibition space in

a converted factory building. Since its founding, it has served as an international hub for Noguchi research and appreciation. In addition to housing the artist’s archives and the catalogue raisonné of his work, the Museum exhibits a comprehensive selection of sculpture, models for public projects and gardens, dance sets, and his Akari light sculptures. Provocative, frequently-changing installations drawn from the permanent collection, together with diverse special exhibitions, offer a rich, contextualized view of Noguchi’s art and illuminate his enduring influence as a category-defying, multicultural, cross-disciplinary innovator. The Noguchi Museum is located at 9-01 33rd Road (at Vernon Boulevard), Long Island City, New York. It is open Wednesday–Sundays with seasonal hours. General admission is $16; $6 for senior citizens and students with a valid ID. New York City public high-school students, children under 12, and Museum members are admitted free of charge. Admission is free on the first Friday of every month. Public tours in English are available daily at 2 pm. Tours in Spanish and Japanese are offered monthly. 718-204-7088 | www.noguchi.org

During the 1940s and 1950s, Isamu Noguchi developed innovative public art projects for New York City, including plazas, ...
08/28/2026

During the 1940s and 1950s, Isamu Noguchi developed innovative public art projects for New York City, including plazas, playgrounds, gardens, and sculptural ceilings.

Unfortunately, not one of the projects from this period remains. They either never came to be or have since been destroyed—a significant loss for New York.

Learn more about each of Noguchi’s unbuilt, altered, & destroyed projects by visiting the exhibition ‘Noguchi’s New York,’ on view through September 13.
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Cover image: Isamu Noguchi with ‘Model of First Proposal for Lever Brothers Building,’ New York, 1952. Photo: Charles Uht. NMA, 03806. © INFGM / ARS

These mysterious stage set collages by Isamu Noguchi were created in the mid-1940s at a time when the artist was collabo...
08/21/2026

These mysterious stage set collages by Isamu Noguchi were created in the mid-1940s at a time when the artist was collaborating with prominent New York dancers and choreographers.

From the 1940s to the 1960s, Noguchi contributed greatly to the city’s rich developments in modern dance and ballet, finding joy in “seeing sculpture come to life on the stage.”

While it is unknown what the above studies were for, they were perhaps related to one of his notable partnerships. Noguchi’s most frequent collaborator was pioneering modern dancer Martha Graham, for whom he created 20 stage sets, but he also worked with New York-based choreographers George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, and Yuriko.

Learn more about Noguchi’s contributions to dance and see these collages on view in the exhibition ‘Noguchi’s New York,’ through September 13, 2026.
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Isamu Noguchi, ‘Stage Set Collages,’ c. 1946, Chalk and colored paper on paper. © INFGM / ARS

Isamu Noguchi’s ‘Yellow Landscape,’ is a surreal remembrance of the moon-like desert in Poston, Arizona. In 1942, Noguch...
08/20/2026

Isamu Noguchi’s ‘Yellow Landscape,’ is a surreal remembrance of the moon-like desert in Poston, Arizona.

In 1942, Noguchi spent six at a prison camp in Poston, where Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated due to anti-Japanese sentiment during World War II. Although as a New Yorker Noguchi was exempt from forced relocation, he voluntarily entered Poston as an act of solidarity—and in hopes of improving conditions by designing parks and an arts program. Once there, he was met with deep skepticism from the incarcerated Japanese population and little support from the administration.

Noguchi was eventually able to obtain a temporary leave of absence and escaped to New York City. Working in Greenwich Village, the war continued to weigh heavily on the artist. His MacDougal Alley studio became a refuge, but the pain of this experience and a lasting sense of unbelonging haunted him.

Learn more about Noguchi’s experience in New York during World War II by visiting the exhibition ‘Noguchi’s New York,’ on view through September 13, 2026.
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Isamu Noguchi, ‘Yellow Landscape,’ 1943. Magnesite, wood, string, metal fishing weight. Installation view, ‘Noguchi’s New York.’ Photo: Nicholas Knight (Nicholas Knight). ©INFGM / ARS

There is just one month left to see the exhibition ‘Noguchi’s New York,’ before it closes on September 13. New York City...
08/13/2026

There is just one month left to see the exhibition ‘Noguchi’s New York,’ before it closes on September 13.

New York City was Isamu Noguchi’s on-again, off-again home from 1922 until his death in 1988. It was here that Noguchi cultivated a sense of civic and social responsibility, and came to believe that he could sculpt the world into a better place.

Through sculptures, project models, photographs, and archival materials, this exhibition explores the many projects—both realized and imagined—through which Noguchi set out to transform the city.

Learn more about the exhibition and plan a visit at the link in our bio.
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Installation views, ‘Noguchi’s New York,’ February 4–September 13, 2026. Photos: Nicholas Knight. (Nicholas Knight). ©INFGM / ARS

Recapping our last Free First Friday with Pawn Chess Club and Discolocas NYC Fiesta Club. ♟️🌱 We had so much fun playing...
08/10/2026

Recapping our last Free First Friday with Pawn Chess Club and Discolocas NYC Fiesta Club. ♟️🌱 We had so much fun playing chess in the galleries, making art with vinyl records, and dancing along to the music. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this special summer evening…not even the rain could stop us from having a great time!

We have one more Free First Friday with extended summer hours (11 am-8 pm) on Friday, September 4. Visit the link in our bio to learn more about all upcoming programs.
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Photos: Chanel Matsunami Govreau (Chanel Matsunami Govreau). ©INFGM / ARS

In 1944, Isamu Noguchi designed a chess set and table for The Imagery of Chess, a groundbreaking exhibition at the Julie...
08/07/2026

In 1944, Isamu Noguchi designed a chess set and table for The Imagery of Chess, a groundbreaking exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City.

The show, conceived by Levy with artists Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp, brought together Surrealists who had recently fled Nazi-occupied Europe and avant-garde American painters and sculptors – including John Cage, Alexander Calder, Arshile Gorky, Man Ray, Kay Sage, and more.

Noguchi’s chess table—a type of play sculpture—was put into limited production by George Nelson at Herman Miller, marking one of the artist’s first commercial designs. The pieces are also formally related to the interlocking forms that Noguchi later adapted for stand-alone sculptures like ‘Strange Bird.’

♟️Stop by the Museum today (August 7) to see Noguchi’s chess table in the exhibition ‘Noguchi’s New York,’ and join us for free admission and chess play in the galleries with Pawn Chess Club from 4–7 pm.
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Isamu Noguchi, Chess Table, 1944. Fabricated by Herman Miller. Ebonized plywood, cast aluminum, plastic insets ©INFGM / ARS

Isamu Noguchi, ‘Chess Pieces,’ 1944. Fabricated by Larry List, 2003, Red and green plexiglass. ©INFGM / ARS

Installation view, ‘Noguchi’s New York, February 4 – September 13, 2026, (left to right) Isamu Noguchi, ‘Strange Bird,’ 1945. Green slate. ‘This Tortured Earth,’ 1942–43 (cast 1977). Bronze. ‘Chess Table’, 1944. Ebonized plywood, cast aluminum, plastic insets.

Photo: Nicholas Knight (Nicholas Knight) ©INFGM / ARS

Today solemnly marks the anniversary of the United States’ use of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. In 1951, ...
08/06/2026

Today solemnly marks the anniversary of the United States’ use of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.

In 1951, Kenzo Tange, the architect of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, invited Isamu Noguchi to design a monument honoring the victims of the bomb. Noguchi envisioned a parabolic sculpture with massive legs plunging through the plaza’s surface into an underground chamber, where it would frame a crypt honoring those who were killed. His proposal was ultimately rejected, in part because he was American.

In 1982, Noguchi reworked his concept for Washington, DC, where the memorial could protest nuclear weapons and inspire contemplation of responsibility in the first nation to have used atomic weapons against civilians.

When those plans, too, fell through, Noguchi considered multiple locations in New York City, including Riverside Park, Central Park, and the Audubon Research & Technology Park in Washington Heights. Though the memorial was ultimately never built, Noguchi dedicated a single gallery of his Museum to a scale model in black granite, the intended material for the memorial arch, where visitors can see it today.

“I had the notion that such a memorial might be meaningful somewhere in the United States as a gesture of regret and a sign of opposition to this devastating event,” the artist wrote.

Learn more about Noguchi’s ‘Memorial to the Atomic Dead’ in the exhibition ‘Noguchi’s New York’ and see the model on view in Area 6 of the Museum’s first floor galleries.
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Isamu Noguchi, “A Project: Hiroshima Memorial to the Dead.” Arts & Architecture 70, no. 4 (April 1953), 16–17. The Noguchi Museum Archives, BM_JOU_0257_1953. ©INFGM / ARS

Isamu Noguchi, ‘Memorial to the Atomic Dead,’ c. 1982. Brazilian granite, Stainless steel, Wood. On view in Area 6 of The Noguchi Museum’s first floor. Photo: Nicholas Knight. Nicholas Knight ©INFGM / ARS

This Friday and Saturday, admission to the Museum is free all day with a series of special programs:Free First Friday (A...
08/05/2026

This Friday and Saturday, admission to the Museum is free all day with a series of special programs:

Free First Friday (August 7) from 4-7 pm:

♟️Drop-in chess in the galleries and garden with Pawn Chess Club
🎧 Music and art-making in English and Spanish with Discolocas NYC Fiesta Club and Sol Aramendi

Community Day (August 8):

🌱 Art-making from 11 am–5 pm
🚶‍♂️ Public tours in English (2 pm and 4 pm) and Japanese (3 pm)
🎨 Student artworks on view in the Education Studio (Level C) from our summer internship program ‘Making Your Mark’ (2–5 pm)

The Museum is open with extended hours until 8 pm Friday, and with usual hours from 11 am– 6 pm Saturday. Advance reservations are not required. Visit the link in our bio to learn more!

What would a New York City playground designed by Isamu Noguchi look like? Throughout his career, Noguchi proposed a tot...
07/31/2026

What would a New York City playground designed by Isamu Noguchi look like?

Throughout his career, Noguchi proposed a total of five playgrounds to the city — and while none were ever realized — a series of hand-painted animations by .western for the exhibition ‘Noguchi’s New York’ allows us to imagine what might have been.

🗓️ 🎨This Saturday, August 1, learn more about Noguchi’s playground ideas and join .western for an artist talk and screening on the process behind making these handcrafted films.

The talk begins at 3 pm and is free with Museum admission. Advance registration is not required, but capacity is first-come, first-served.
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Above: Animated film inspired by Isamu Noguchi’s models for ‘Riverside Playground,’ 2026. Vinyl emulsion on celluloid, 16 sec. Directed by Nicolas Ménard & Jack Cunningham, Eastend Western

Isamu Noguchi working on a model for ‘Riverside Playground,’ 1963. Photo: Michio Noguchi. The Noguchi Museum Archives, 03933. ©INFGM / ARS

To bring to life Isamu Noguchi’s unrealized playground designs for the exhibition ‘Noguchi’s New York,’ .western created...
07/24/2026

To bring to life Isamu Noguchi’s unrealized playground designs for the exhibition ‘Noguchi’s New York,’ .western created five animated films painted entirely by hand.

Using a traditional animation technique, artists Nicolas Ménard and Jack Cunningham painted and layered over 1,800 celluloids (transparent film sheets), creating a vibrant and textured world that compliments Noguchi’s own designs.

Interested in learning more? .western will be joining us next Saturday for a series of programs exploring this process!

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EVENT DETAILS
Saturday, August 1

🎨 Family Workshop (10:30 am–12:30 pm)
- Families with children ages 7–14 are invited to create a collaborative animation by coloring frames from the films using markers on celluloid. (Registration required, link in bio).

💬 Artist Talk (3–4 pm)
- Visitors of all ages are invited to join Nicolas and Jack for a screening and talk about the process behind their films. (Registration not required; capacity first-come, first-served).

Learn more about both programs, and watch all five animated films at the link in our bio!
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Animated films inspired by Isamu Noguchi’s Playground Proposals for New York City, 2026. Vinyl emulsion on celluloid. Directed by Nicolas Ménard & Jack Cunningham, Eastend Western

Address

9-01 33rd Road (At Vernon Blvd)
Long Island City, NY
11106

Opening Hours

Wednesday 11am - 6pm
Thursday 11am - 6pm
Friday 11am - 6pm
Saturday 11am - 6pm
Sunday 11am - 6pm

Telephone

(718) 204-7088

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