The Whitney Museum of American Art has been rising alongside the High Line, in New York City’s Meatpacking District. It opens to the public next week, on Friday, May 1. 

Advance access: But if you’re a member, or if you become a member soon, its doors will open for you in a special Founding Members Weekend, April 25-26. Information.

There is a free open house all day on Saturday, May 2, but tickets are going fast. The outdoor block party is free and open to all. Information. There will be more about the new Whitney to come in DART. For now, enjoy this preview of the new building and exhibitions. 

Inaugural exhibitions: When the Whitney Museum of American Art opens its new Renzo Piano-designed home in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District on May 1, 2015, the first exhibition on view will be an unprecedented selection of works from the Museum’s renowned permanent collection. Setting forth a distinctly new narrative, America Is Hard to See presents fresh perspectives on the Whitney’s collection and reflects upon art in the United States with over 600 works by some 400 artists, spanning the period from about 1900 to the present. The exhibition—its title is taken from a poem by Robert Frost and also used by the filmmaker Emile de Antonio for one of his political documentaries—is the most ambitious display to date of the Whitney’s collection. 

The Whitney Museum of American Art. Photo: Ed Lederman.

The outdoor exhibitions: Just in time for great spring weather, Mary Heilmann's site specific installation Sunset inaugurates the fifth-floor outdoor gallery with sculptural chairs and pink wall elements that play off the geometries of the building. The video Swan Song (1982), shown here for the first time, documents the destruction of the previous West Side Highway and includes footage of the Hudson River as well as the neighborhood surrounding the Whitney’s new home.

The building: Just steps away from the south entrance to the High Line, a dramatically cantilevered entrance along Gansevoort shelters an 8,500-square-foot outdoor plaza. The new building will include approximately 50,000 square feet of indoor galleries and 13,000 square feet of outdoor exhibition space and terraces facing the High Line. An expansive gallery for special exhibitions will be approximately 18,000 square feet in area, making it the largest column-free museum gallery in New York City. Additional exhibition space includes a lobby gallery (accessible free of charge), two floors for the permanent collection, and a special exhibitions gallery on the top floor. More.

Installation view of Mary Heilmann: Sunset Photograph by Marco Anelli © 2015.

The collection online: The Whitney's collection online provides unprecedented access to over 21,000 works by more than 3,000 artists. These works in all mediums—painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, film, video, installation, and new media—serve as a remarkable resource for understanding art history and the creative process of artists in the United States from 1900 to today. The Museum invites you to explore the breadth and depth of a collection that has helped define what is innovative and influential in American art since the beginning of the twentieth century, here.

The Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street, NY, NY. Information.