Dia:Chelsea
Dia’s exhibition program in New York City began in 1987 with the opening of a four-story converted warehouse at 548 West 22nd Street, called the Dia Center for the Arts. In keeping with Dia’s mandate, the exhibitions, at what would be later renamed Dia:Chelsea, focused on individual artists, and typically offered an artist an entire floor on which to develop a new project or create a focused presentation of existing work. The exhibitions were on view for about one year to allow extended viewing.
Among the many artists who created site-specific exhibition projects for Dia are Robert Gober, Ann Hamilton, Jenny Holzer, Pierre Huyghe, Robert Irwin, Juan Muñoz, Jorge Pardo, Jessica Stockholder, Diana Thater, and Lawrence Weiner. Others, including On Kawara, Bridget Riley, Robert Ryman, and Robert Whitman, presented existing work in focused installations that responded to Dia’s mandate and site.
In 1987, when Dia:Chelsea opened its main space, it attracted about 16,000 to 17,000 visitors a year. Before it closed for renovations in February 2004, attendance had grown to about 60,000. The extent of the repairs needed prompted the foundation to sell the building for $38.55 million in December 2007.
The foundation's board abandoned plans on opening a museum at the entrance to the High Line in 2006 after losing its longtime director, Michael Govan, and its chairman and benefactor, Leonard Riggio. In November, 2009, Dia's Director Philippe Vergne announced plans to reopen in Chelsea on West 22nd Street. In 2011, after years of negotiations, Dia bought the former Alcamo Marble building at 541 West 22nd Street, located between its former space at No. 545 and its existing six-story building at No. 535, for $11.5 million. Inside, these three existing brick buildings will be woven together to create three interconnected galleries on the ground floor.
According to plans, the new Dia, designed by architect Roger Duffy, will include 15,670 square feet of gallery space and 3,625 square feet of rooftop for outdoor exhibitions like Dan Graham’s Rooftop Urban Park Project (1991), an architectural pavilion fashioned from two-way mirrored glass that was originally installed on the roof of No. 548.
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