The Frick Collection Reopens April 17, 2025
Museum and Library Unveil Revitalized Historic Spaces, Additional Galleries, and New Amenities, with an Inaugural Season of Special Programs
New York (Updated March 25, 2025) — The Frick Collection reopens to the public on April 17, 2025, following the multi-year renovation and enhancement of its historic Fifth Avenue home. Designed by Selldorf Architects, with executive architect Beyer Blinder Belle, the project was developed to honor the historic legacy and character of the Frick while addressing critical infrastructure and operational needs.
Marking the most comprehensive upgrade to the institution since its opening in 1935, the project has restored the Frick’s historic first-floor galleries and created a new suite of galleries on the second floor of the original Frick family home, welcoming the public to experience these spaces for the first time. Through the repurposing of existing space and a modest addition, the renovation and enhancement significantly expands exhibition and programmatic spaces, including new special exhibition galleries on the museum’s first floor, the Frick’s first dedicated education rooms, and a new 218-seat auditorium. The project also included the restoration of the 70th Street Garden, now visible from multiple new vantage points throughout the building. Major infrastructure upgrades, improvements to overall accessibility, and new public amenities and back-of-house facilities—notable among them, the creation of advanced art and library conservation facilities—ensure the Frick’s vibrancy for decades to come. The Frick Art Research Library and its refurbished reading rooms reopen concurrently with the museum, with new entry points that enable a seamless integration of the institution’s two branches.
The reopening of the Frick invites visitors to experience the museum’s collection anew, with its iconic masterworks reinstalled in restored galleries on the first floor and smaller-scale paintings, sculptures, and decorative objects on view throughout its newly opened second floor. In addition, the Frick’s inaugural season features a slate of special installations and public programs, including a special commission of porcelain plants and flowers by sculptor Vladimir Kanevsky, a presentation that pays homage to the floral arrangements made for the Frick’s original opening in 1935. In late April, the Frick inaugurates the Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium with a music festival featuring both classical and contemporary works. And, in June, the museum’s new first-floor special exhibition galleries debut with Vermeer’s Love Letters, which continues the Frick’s tradition of focused presentations that re-examine masterworks from the permanent collection.
“The reopening of the Frick marks an exciting moment in the trajectory of this storied cultural institution,” stated Axel Rüger, the Frick’s Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director, who joined the Frick in March 2025. “With the return of the Frick’s masterworks to their revitalized home, we welcome visitors to rediscover the beauty, intimacy, and scholarship that have defined the Frick for nearly a century and that we hope will inspire generations of visitors to come.”
Added Ian Wardropper, the Frick’s former director who shepherded the project through to completion, “Intimate encounters with iconic works of art remain a cornerstone of the Frick experience. Visitors will now be able to experience even more of our collection and programs, thanks to the many architects, preservation experts, curators, artisans, and innumerable museum and library staff who have collaborated to restore the original mansion while also creating new galleries, program spaces, and public amenities. We are especially honored and gratified by the extraordinarily generous support of the many donors who have helped to make this renovation and enhancement project a reality.”
Added Elizabeth M. Eveillard, Chair of the Board of Trustees, “The Frick’s reopening is an invitation to all New Yorkers and art lovers from around the world to discover—or rediscover—incredible works of art from our permanent collection, displayed in the painstakingly restored setting of our historic home. Following this long-awaited unveiling, we look forward to giving our audiences the opportunity to experience several newly constructed spaces through the revitalization of signature Frick offerings, namely a classical concert series and a focused exhibition featuring Vermeer’s beloved Mistress and Maid.”
“It has been an honor and privilege to work on the Frick renovation and enhancement project,” stated Annabelle Selldorf, principal of Selldorf Architects. “We worked carefully to develop an architectural vocabulary for the project that is continuous with the existing historic fabric yet employs distinct but appropriate contemporary detailing in the façades and interiors. I believe that this careful blending of old and new will make people feel even more welcome as they return to—or discover for the first time—the Frick, its collection, and its beautiful setting.”
Highlights of the Frick’s Inaugural Season
Museum’s Second Floor Opens to the Public for the First Time
Complementing the grand galleries of the Frick’s first floor—which include the Oval Room, East and West Galleries, Fragonard Room, Dining Room, Library, and Living Hall—the museum’s added second-floor galleries provide entirely new opportunities for visitors to engage with the Frick’s holdings and historic spaces. Formerly the Frick family’s private living quarters, the second floor of the historic mansion served as staff meeting rooms and administrative offices after the museum opened in 1935. Careful restoration and preservation of architectural and decorative features—including ceiling murals, marble fireplaces, and elaborate carved woodwork—have brought these intimate rooms back to life, with varied arrangements of smaller-scale paintings, sculptures, and decorative objects from different schools and periods, along with rarely exhibited and recently acquired works.
The second floor also enables visitors to experience installations inspired by the personal collecting interests of the Frick family. These include a selection of portrait paintings installed within the original bedroom of Henry Clay Frick, in honor of the founder’s favored genre; Renaissance gold-ground panels in the original bedroom of Helen Clay Frick, the founder’s daughter, which pay tribute to her role in shaping the collection; and Impressionist paintings, a majority of which were collected by Frick in his lifetime. A highlight of the second floor is the Boucher Room, which has been moved from its previous location on the first floor to its original setting upstairs, in the former private sitting room of Adelaide Childs, Frick’s wife.
Also on view are significant collections that have more recently entered into the museum’s holdings. Some of these objects have not previously been regularly exhibited, but represent the most significant collections of their kind—including French faience bequeathed by Sidney R. Knafel; Viennese Du Paquier porcelain given by Melinda and Paul Sullivan; rare portrait medals from the unparalleled holdings of Stephen K. and Janie Woo Scher; and the first permanent display of the Frick’s important collection of clocks and watches.
The installation of these galleries, along with the reinstallation of the Frick’s first floor, was organized by the curatorial team led by Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator; with Aimee Ng, John Updike Curator; Giulio Dalvit, Associate Curator; and Marie-Laure Buku Pongo, Associate Curator of Decorative Arts; in association with the Frick’s longtime exhibition designer, Stephen Saitas.
Music, Performance, and Education Programming to Resume in New Spaces
Building on its history of hosting concerts of the highest caliber, the Frick has organized a festival of performances and special events to mark the debut of its new 218-seat Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium. Running from Saturday, April 26, through Sunday, May 11, 2025, a two-week Spring Music Festival features concerts of classical, baroque, and modern music as well as a new contemporary commission by Tyshawn Sorey, the 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner for composition. The series is organized by Jeremy Ney, the Frick’s Matthew Christopher Pietras Head of Music and Performance. (The festival is made possible through major support from the Christian Keesee Charitable Trust, Karen Z. Gray-Krehbiel and John H. Krehbiel Jr., and Jane Moss and Ravenel Curry. Additional funding is provided by Jane L. Richards. More information about the festival can be found at frick.org/concerts.)
New educational offerings debut in April with a lecture series, along with original programs presented in the new, dedicated Ian Wardropper Education Room, including the revival of beloved past programs designed to enhance the experience of students, educators, community organizations and partners, and intergenerational audiences. Further programmatic details are available on the museum’s website. These programs are organized by April Kim Tonin, the institution’s Ayesha Bulchandani Head of Education and Public Engagement.
New Cabinet Gallery Opens with Rare Display of Drawings
Complementing the museum’s celebrated holdings of paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts, a display of twelve exceptional works on paper from the permanent collection inaugurate a new Cabinet Gallery on the museum’s first floor. Rarely on view owing to their sensitivity to light, these works range from sketches to highly finished drawings by Degas, Goya, Ingres, Rubens, and Whistler, among others, and span from the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries. The presentation, on view from the reopening into the summer of 2025, is organized by Aimee Ng, John Updike Curator. (This installation is generously funded by The Gilbert & Ildiko Butler Family Foundation, Inc.)
Special Installation of Porcelain Sculptures by Vladimir Kanevsky
The Frick has commissioned a series of works by sculptor Vladimir Kanevsky (b. Ukraine, 1951), displayed throughout the galleries upon the museum’s reopening and meant to evoke the fresh floral bouquets displayed throughout the Frick’s galleries when the museum first opened in 1935. Known for his lifelike porcelain plants and flowers, Kanevsky has exhibited in museums around the world, including the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory Museum in Meissen, Germany; the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia; and Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens in Washington, D.C. The presentation is organized by Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, and will remain on view through October 6.
Vermeer’s Love Letters to Inaugurate the Frick’s New Special Exhibition Galleries
To inaugurate the museum’s new first-floor Ronald S. Lauder Exhibition Galleries, three works by Vermeer will be presented from June 18 through September 8, 2025. The unprecedented installation of paintings united in Vermeer’s Love Letters pairs the Frick’s Mistress and Maid with special loans of the Rijksmuseum’s Love Letter and the National Gallery of Ireland’s Woman Writing a Letter, with Her Maid. Their presentation, together in a single gallery for the first time, offers visitors an opportunity to consider Vermeer’s treatment of the theme of letters and his depiction of women of different social classes. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Robert Fucci, a distinguished scholar of Dutch art from the University of Amsterdam, who has authored a catalogue focused on the three works and their broader themes in seventeenth-century Dutch art. (This exhibition is generously funded by the Jasmine Charity Trust in memory of Regina Jaglom Wachter.)