After 40 Itinerant Years, Swiss Institute Puts Down Roots on the Bowery

After 40 Itinerant Years, Swiss Institute Puts Down Roots on the Bowery

TheSwiss Institute(SI) has purchased space at 250 Bowery that will serve as the New Yorknonprofit’s first permanent home in its nearly forty-year history. The new digs, which are directly across the street from the New Museum’s recently expanded campus, comprise the ground floor and basement of a modern luxury residence and formerly housed the International Center for Photography, which is now a few blocks away.

The terms of the deal have not been publicly disclosed. The organization has retained architect Johnston Marklee, which designed the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program’s new home across town, to renovate the space. It plans to open its doors in the spring of 2027.

Inaugurated in a town house on West Sixty-Seventh Street, SI since its 1986 founding had occupied rental spaces around New York, bouncing to 495 Broadway in SoHo in 1994, 18 Wooster Street in the same neighborhood in 2011, and 102 Franklin Street in TriBeCa in 2016. In 2018, it took over a disused bank at 38 St. Marks Place, where it will remain in operation through July 5, when its current exhibitions close. Its new home comprises 11,000 square feet; its  current East Village space is 7,000 square feet.

“Owning our own space for the first time in the institution’s impressive history allows us to secure the foundation for an even more generative future grounded in experimentation and support of artists,” said SI director Stefanie Hessler in a statement. “250 Bowery will give SI the opportunity to evolve with emerging generations of artists, expand our forward-looking programming, and contribute to quickly evolving conversations in art, ecology and technology, while reaffirming our commitment to New York City’s cultural landscape. Here, we will put down roots and continue to grow.”

SI plans to continue its programming off-site while its new home is being renovated, beginning with exhibition by Polish artist Rafał Skoczek, the location of which is yet to be announced.