Photo by Filip Wolak
Photo by Filip Wolak
Dear Rubin Community,
As many of you know, last weekend we said farewell to our building on 17th Street, which has been the Rubin’s home in Chelsea, New York City, for the past 20 years.
This important moment ushers the Rubin into a new era. On behalf of Rubin staff and trustees, I want to say thank you to everyone who visited and supported the Museum these last years, months, and weeks. As we transform into a museum without walls, we aspire to share more art with more people in more places through traveling exhibitions, partnerships with other organizations, collection sharing, digital resources, support for living artists and researchers, and the annual Rubin Museum Himalayan Art Prize.
Sunday afternoon included a beautiful procession of hundreds of prayer flags inscribed with well wishes co-created by artists Kabi Raj Lama, Yangdzom Lama, Shushank Shrestha, Asha Kama Wangdi, Losel Yauch, and visitors to the exhibition Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now. As we closed the front doors, flags were strung across the Museum facade out onto 17th Street, echoing the way we opened the building on October 2, 2004. While nostalgia and sadness floated in the air, there was also the powerful feeling of something new evolving and arising.
In many ways the ceremony was a return to our roots, honoring our past, but also a look forward, to the possibilities that lie ahead in our new global museum model, with exhibitions and projects across the world that reach new people, and collaborations that continue to elevate Himalayan art as an important field of study and source of learning, inspiration, and insights.
Photo by Filip Wolak
Our presence in New York City will continue even without a building.
I am excited to share that our Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room, a favorite installation among visitors and one that many people have asked about, will continue to be accessible in the city. Beginning in June 2025 as part of a multiyear collaboration, the Brooklyn Museum will be the new home for the Shrine Room. We couldn’t be more excited to continue to share the collection with our New York City community and to bring this unique and meaningful experience to even more visitors.
Additionally, our popular Mindfulness Meditation in-person program will continue every Thursday at New York Insight Meditation Center at 115 West 29th Street with the same teachers you’ve grown to love over the years. The first program is tomorrow, Thursday, October 10, and tickets can be reserved for the entire month of October.
And next spring, we will unveil a temporary public art project in Jackson Heights, Queens, as part of a collaboration with the NYC Department of Transportation Art Program.
There’s even more just around the corner.
Thank you again for your unwavering support and belief in our mission to bring greater understanding and appreciation of Himalayan art to as large and diverse an audience as possible. We invite you to stay in touch with the Rubin’s work as we reach more people in more places for decades to come.
With gratitude,
Jorrit Britschgi, Executive Director
Jorrit Britschgi has served as the Rubin Museum’s Executive Director since 2017. Before joining the Rubin, he served as Head of Exhibitions and Publications at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, Switzerland, where he was manager of the exhibitions program and curated numerous exhibitions. Mr. Britschgi also served as publisher of Artibus Asiae, one of the leading scholarly journals in Asian art and archaeology, for over a decade.
Jorrit Britschgi graduated from Zurich University with an MA in art history and Sinology (2005) and a PhD, with highest honors, in East Asian Art History (2009). Besides his research activities, he’s taken part in archaeological excavations in Eastern China and Bhutan, and curated numerous exhibitions on paintings from the Indian Himalayan region. Mr. Britschgi has received grants from federal and private foundations to pursue his studies and research. He is a 2017 alumni of the Getty Leadership Institute, and shares his expertise in an advisory capacity with other museums and individuals.
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