A “sprinkler emergency” forced the recently reopened Studio Museum in Harlem to evacuate visitors on Friday and close for the weekend.
As reported by Hyperallergic, staff told visitors to leave as a ceiling near the gift shop leaked water. “We saw a large pool of water on the floor near the entrance, and saw the water flowing down in the store,” an unnamed visitor told Hyperallergic.
A spokesperson for the Studio Museum—which reopened in November in a high-profile new home designed by David Adjaye’s architecture firm Adjaye Associates—said that a sprinkler was damaged during preparations for a weekend storm that dumped more than a foot of snow in some parts of Manhattan and sent temperatures plummeting into the 20s and teens.
“No artworks or galleries were affected,” the spokesperson told Hyperallergic, which included video showing water flowing onto gift-shop shelves that had been emptied.
A “Weekend Closure” notice posted on the Studio Museum’s currently reads: “The Museum will be closed from Saturday, January 24 through Sunday, January 25. We look forward to welcoming you back on Wednesday, January 28.” (The museum is typically closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.) A spokesperson told ARTnews the museum is currently assessing the extent of the damage.
Since its closely watched reopening last fall, the Studio Museum has been anchored by the exhibition “From Now: A Collection in Context,” which will remain on view through August 16. Other exhibitions include a survey of light-up sculptures by Tom Lloyd (through March 22) and “From the Studio: Fifty-Eight Years of Artists in Residence” (through February 15).
