Whitney Museum Announces Free Entry on Saturday, April 22

Image caption: Photograph by Filip Wolak; Installation view of no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, November 23, 2022-April 23, 2023). Gabriela Salazar, Reclamation (and Place, Puerto Rico), 2022. Photograph by Sebastian Bach

Whitney Museum Celebrates Earth Day and the last weekend of landmark exhibition no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria with FREE Entry on Saturday, April 22

The Whitney Museum of American Art is offering free admission to all visitors on Saturday, April 22, in celebration of both Earth Day and the final weekend of its landmark exhibition no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria.

For one weekend only, the Museum will have three exhibitions on view that, in part, address the environment, climate change, or our relationship to the land. They include:

• no existe un mundo poshuracán, the first survey of Puerto Rican art by a major U.S. art museum in 50 years, which closes on April 23.
• Jaune Quick-To-See Smith: Memory Map, celebrates five decades of artwork by the groundbreaking artist Jaune Quick-To-See Smith. The exhibition offers a new framework to consider contemporary Native American art by exploring pressing issues of land, racism, and cultural preservation. Opens on April 19.
• Josh Kline: Project for a New American Century, the first U.S. museum survey of Josh Kline’s work, spanning 15 years and including the debut of installations and moving image works that address the urgency of the climate crisis. Opens on April 19.

In addition, from 11 AM to 3 PM, a climate-related drop-in art program for kids of all ages will be held in the Hess Family Theater and Hearst Artspace on the Museum’s third floor. The program is led by no existe un mundo poshuracán artist and Manhattan native Gabriela Salazar, whose outdoor installation Reclamation uses coffee—Puerto Rico’s most historically-significant crop— to explore how the islands of Puerto Rico and Manhattan are connected and vulnerable to rising sea levels. Families are invited to join Salazar and experiment with coffee-clay to make artworks inspired by her installation and artistic practice.

The Whitney’s Activity Guide for kids (in English and Spanish) also gives families the opportunity to explore the themes of no existe un mundo poshuracán independently.

Free tickets for April 22 are available while supplies last. Advanced tickets are strongly recommended; visit whitney.org/tickets.

“Art is a powerful way to process complex subjects,” says Cris Scorza, the Helena Rubinstein Chair of Education. The Whitney is a safe space for thoughtful discussion, debate, and reflection. We encourage as many New Yorkers as possible to visit this Earth Day—for free—to discover the varying ways artists are addressing climate change, the land, and the environment through their work.”

To date, thousands of visitors have already seen no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria, which opened on November 23, 2022, and is curated by Whitney DeMartini Family Curator Marcela Guerrero. The exhibition brings together an intergenerational group of twenty artists from Puerto Rico and the diaspora whose work responds to the transformative five years since Hurricane Maria—a high-end category-four storm that hit Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. Through over 50 works, these artists address the larger devastation exacerbated by historic events that preceded and followed this defining moment.

To see the exhibition in its final weeks, visitors can get tickets at whitney.org. In addition to the free day on April 22, kids and teens are always free at the Whitney, and Members enjoy any time admission when they show their membership cards. The Museum also offers a suite of free and discounted ticket offerings, including pay-what-you-wish Friday evenings.

The Whitney is the world’s preeminent institution devoted to the art of the United States, with a special focus on living artists. All year round, the Whitney offers free art programming for kids and teens on weekends and a robust slate of public programs and events for visitors of all ages.

ABOUT THE WHITNEY

The Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1930 by the artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), houses the foremost collection of American art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mrs. Whitney, an early and ardent supporter of modern American art, nurtured groundbreaking artists when audiences were still largely preoccupied with the Old Masters. From her vision arose the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has been championing the most innovative art of the United States for ninety years. The core of the Whitney’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit American art of our time and serve a wide variety of audiences in celebration of the complexity and diversity of art and culture in the United States. Through this mission and a steadfast commitment to artists, the Whitney has long been a powerful force in support of modern and contemporary art and continues to help define what is innovative and influential in American art today.

Whitney Museum Land Acknowledgement

The Whitney is located in Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape. The name Manhattan comes from their word Mannahatta, meaning “island of many hills.” The Museum’s current site is close to land that was a Lenape fishing and planting site called Sapponckanikan (“tobacco field”). The Whitney acknowledges the displacement of this region’s original inhabitants and the Lenape diaspora that exists today.

As a museum of American art in a city with vital and diverse communities of Indigenous people, the Whitney recognizes the historical exclusion of Indigenous artists from its collection and program. The Museum is committed to addressing these erasures and honoring the perspectives of Indigenous artists and communities as we work for a more equitable future. To read more about the Museum’s Land Acknowledgement, visit the Museum’s website.

VISITOR INFORMATION

The Whitney Museum of American Art is located at 99 Gansevoort Street between Washington and West Streets, New York City. Public hours are: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 10:30 am–6 pm; Friday, 10:30 am–10 pm; and Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 am–6 pm. Closed Tuesday. Visitors eighteen years and under and Whitney members: FREE. Admission is pay- what-you-wish on Fridays, 7–10 pm. COVID-19 vaccination and face coverings are not required but strongly recommended. We encourage all visitors to wear face coverings that cover the nose and mouth throughout their visit.