Hudson Yards arts center The Shed sets an opening date and reveals additions to inaugural lineup

The Shed, New York City’s first arts center dedicated to presenting new performing arts, visual arts, and popular culture works, has set an opening date of April 5, 2019, the organization’s Artistic Director and CEO Alex Poots announced today. The city’s newest arts center on Manhattan’s west side has also announced four additional opening season commissions and the honorary naming of its building and two major spaces in recognition of visionary supporters of the project in addition to information about operating hours and tickets.

Rendering of the Shed and the High Line, courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro

In addition to the previously announced inaugural season programming, Poots unveiled four new commissions: POWERPLAY, an original production that explores the act of restoring individual power through collective action via hip hop, spoken word, dance, and moving images (May 18-19); “Cinta Amarilla,” a film about the artist Beatriz González, directed by Yanina Valdivieso and Vanessa Bergonzoli, and produced by Display None (June 19 – August 25); new works by artists Tony Cokes and Oscar Murillo (June 19 – August 25); “Maze,” a new production from street dance pioneer Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray, co-directed by Kaneza Schaal, exploring the puzzles, poetry, and infinite challenges of human coexistence.

Björk will perform “Cornucopia,” directed by John Tiffany, as part of the inaugural program. Photo: Warren Du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones.

In November The Shed announced the addition of a world premier concert production, “Cornucopia,” by Björk and directed by John Tiffany. Last spring, the season’s first commissions were announced, including:

• A new live production celebrating the impact of African American music on art and popular culture in the past century conceived by acclaimed filmmaker and artist Steve McQueen, developed and produced with music industry legend Quincy Jones, respected NYU academic Maureen Mahon, and preeminent hip-hop producer Dion ‘No I.D.’ Wilson
• “Reich Richter Pärt,” a live performance/exhibition that pairs work by master painter Gerhard Richter with a new composition by Steve Reich and an extant composition by Arvo Pärt
• “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy,” a reinvention of Euripides’ “Helen” by poet Anne Carson, starring Ben Whishaw and Renée Fleming
• An original live production co-conceived by Chen Shi-Zheng and Kung Fu Panda screenwriters Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, with songs by Sia and choreography by Akram Khan
• Expansive exhibitions devoted to extant and newly commissioned work by artists Trisha Donnelly and Agnes Denes

Last March, two free weeks of art and music called “A Prelude to The Shed,” took place on a lot at 10th Avenue and 30th Street, one block from the arts center’s future home. Performed on a pavilion outside, the events were a teaser for the arts center’s much-anticipated opening season.

Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lead Architect, and Rockwell Group, Collaborating Architect, The Shed features a movable shell on rails that sits over the fixed base of the building, allowing for it to change size depending on the type of event. Poots said in a press release, “We have built a home where established and emerging artists working in all disciplines can create new work in ways that we cannot even imagine. Beginning on April 5, 2019, The Shed’s community of neighbors, New Yorkers, and visitors from around the world will come together to experience the widest range of art forms in spaces that can accommodate artists’ most inventive and ambitious ideas.”

The Shed’s main building on West 30th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues has been named The Bloomberg Building. Two major spaces on the building’s top level—a 9,500-square-foot skylit event space and an artistic development and experimentation lab–have been named The Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Skylights and The Tisch Lab. As 6sqft previously reported, The Shed’s largest and most iconic space has been named The McCourt in recognition of a $45 million gift by Frank McCourt, Jr. and his family. The new space, formed when The Shed’s movable shell is extended over the building’s adjoining plaza, will be able to accommodate large-scale performances, installations, and events.

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