A new arts institution with a focus on video art, sound art, and performance art is set to open on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 2026. Called Canyon, the 40,000-square-foot venue will occupy a long-vacant commercial space at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge.
The project is the brainchild of philanthropist and art collector Robert Rosenkranz and Joe Thompson, the founding director of MASS MoCA. According to its organizers, Canyon is being designed for works meant to be experienced over time rather than glimpsed in passing.
Thompson, who will serve as director, said the goal is to make staying with the work feel natural and enjoyable. “Humans are wired to give ourselves over to things that take time—concerts, leisurely dinners with friends, movies—in the evening,” he said in an email to ARTnews. “If we’re inviting people to spend time at Canyon, let’s make it really comfortable, with galleries more akin to living rooms than stark white boxes, with a place to put your drink.”
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The architecture firm New Affiliates has been tapped to redesign the venue, which will include 18,000 square feet of exhibition space and a 60-foot-tall area for performances and gatherings. A dedicated 300-seat performance hall will host concerts, screenings, lectures, and podcast tapings.
Exhibitions will rotate three times per year, and early plans include a retrospective of Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda and an expanded iteration of “Worldbuilding,” a group exhibition about video games and contemporary art that was organized by curator Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Obrist described Canyon as “not just a new institution—it’s a new time zone for art.” He added that it will offer “a much-needed space for duration, immersion, and reflection,” and noted that “Worldbuilding” will benefit from the venue’s support for experimentation and its emphasis on collective, time-based experience. The show first debuted in 2022 at the Julia Stoschek Collection, another institution with an emphasis on video art.
Canyon also aims to meet artists on their own terms. “Video has become a dominant mode of communication,” said Sam Ozer, founder of the Mexico-based festival TONO and Canyon’s newly appointed curator-at-large. “Artists working with performance, sound, and moving images are experimenting with new forms of transmission and gathering. Canyon is designed to support the complexity of these works and reimagine how audiences can experience them.”
In addition to its immersive programming, the venue will house long-term partners including Electronic Arts Intermix, Rhizome, and the ARChive of Contemporary Music, each of which will contribute to Canyon’s programming.
The space will charge the general public $30 for admission—the same amount as the Museum of Modern Art, one of the most expensive art institutions in the nation—but access will be free for school groups and library cardholders. The initiative is being launched through what Rosenkranz calls “venture philanthropy.” His foundation is covering the $10 million build-out and will help fund the estimated $10 million annual operating budget.
