91Èȱ¬

On 15 June 2019 the Museum of Modern Art in New York closed its doors ahead of a four month refurbishment and the final stage of a $400 million overhaul. When it re-opens its doors in October, MoMA will not only have reconfigured its galleries but also rehung the entire collection on show.

In this special edition of In The Studio, Paul Kobrak follows Ramona Bronkar Bannayan, Senior Deputy Director of Exhibitions & Collections, and Lana Hum, Director of Exhibition Design & Production, as they oversee this epic feat of creativity and choreography.

This time, instead of moving to a temporary space as they did for MoMA's last renovation 15 years ago, they are deinstalling and reinstalling nearly 170,000 square feet of gallery space in just under 4 months. Roughly 10,000 art moves are being undertaken between conservation, storage, and the galleries; and around 2,000 individual works of art are going into the frame shop - with 1,550 new frames having to be constructed.

But it is not just the logistical nightmare that is keeping Ramona, Lana and the Museum’s curators and staff awake at night. With 40,000 square feet of additional space, as a result of expanding into a new residential skyscraper, they also aim to rethink the way the story of modern and contemporary art is presented to the public – balancing the presentation of Claude Monet’s crowd-pleasing Water Lilies and Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, with lesser known works covering the full range of MoMA’s massive collection, including photography, sound works, performance, moving image and art forms not yet imagined.

With exclusive access over an eight month period, Paul Kobrak traces the team's progress as they prepare for the Museum’s closure and the subsequent re-opening on 21 October 2019.

Presented by Paul Kobrak.

Produced by Paul Kobrak , Ella-mai Robey and Emma Kingsley for the 91Èȱ¬ World Service.

North/south section-perspective through the new gallery spaces at The Museum of Modern Art, looking east along Fifty-third Street. © 2017 Diller Scofidio + Renfro