{"id":350392,"date":"2026-09-18T18:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350392\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T18:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:06:07","slug":"aperture-opens-its-long-awaited-gallery-and-headquarters-on-the-upper-west-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350392\/","title":{"rendered":"Aperture Opens Its Long-Awaited Gallery and Headquarters on the Upper West Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The inside of Aperture. Photo by Kris Graves \u00a9 Aperture.<\/p>\n

By Scott Etkin<\/p>\n

Lovers of photography have a new spot to visit on the Upper West Side. After four years of planning and renovation, Aperture<\/a>, the nonprofit photography organization, is opening its doors in a historic building just across the street from the Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n

The headquarters at 380 Columbus Avenue between West 78th and 79th streets, includes office space for the organization\u2019s 30 full-time employees, storage for archival prints and books (it has 1,000 titles on its backlist), a small bookshop, and an exhibition gallery that will double as an event space.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is, it\u2019s a welcoming space. It\u2019s free and open to the public,\u201d said executive director\u00a0 Sarah Meister on a recent tour of the building with the Rag. \u201cYou know, come on in. There are comfortable chairs. There are tables. Sit down, read a book, buy one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opening Friday marks a new chapter for the organization. Founded in 1952 by writers and photographers, including Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, Aperture is known for its art books, high-quality prints, and quarterly magazine. The organization was previously located in Chelsea. Its gallery space and bookstore there has been closed since 2018.<\/p>\n

The decision to move uptown was announced in September 2022, following Aperture\u2019s $8.95 million purchase of 10,000 square feet of commercial space in the landmarked building known as the Evelyn.<\/p>\n

While the organization originally planned to open in 2024, the opening date was pushed back at least three times, in part because the renovation turned out to be more extensive than anticipated.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest engineering challenges was shoring up the foundation of the 140-year-old building. This required 600 gallons of injection grouting to be filled into boreholes to stabilize voids in the dirt below the building\u2019s concrete.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like Botox for buildings,\u201d said Meister.<\/p>\n

Visitors to 380 Columbus might remember its previous incarnation as Ocean Grill, the restaurant that closed<\/a> in 2015. Aperture and its architectural firm, LEVENBETTS, \u201cleft traces of history around\u201d in order to preserve the \u201cauthenticity of the material,\u201d according to Meister.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo by Kris Graves \u00a9 Aperture.<\/p>\n

The exposed bricks and beams give the interior an industrial-chic aesthetic. \u201cPeople look at these walls and [ask], \u2018well, you\u2019re going to clean them?\u2019 And the answer is actually they have been cleaned and sealed extensively,\u201d said Meister.<\/p>\n

Aperture has also left intact some of the quirks of the building, such as a fireplace that appears midway up the wall near the entrance, a remnant from when it was a residential building.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The gallery and bookshop is up a short flight of steps (Aperture installed an elevator), which is also planned to be used occasionally as a 45-seat event space. Talks by artists will be open to the public for free or at low cost.<\/p>\n

Aside from the gallery, the rest of the two floors are dedicated to storing Aperture\u2019s books and prints, and to offices where its staff will work on new publications.<\/p>\n

Prior to the renovation, the state of the basement was of particular concern when it was initially shown to staff. \u201cThey looked at me like, you know, \u2018you\u2019re sending me to the dungeon.\u2019 I mean, it looked horrible,\u201d said Meister.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, Meister remembers frequenting this basement with her friends when she was a teenager and the space was Alice Underground, a vintage clothing store. Meister grew up on the Upper East Side. <\/p>\n

Back upstairs in the gallery, almost all the photographs on display will change regularly, which Meister hopes will give visitors a reason to come back to Aperture. The only permanent photograph is a portrait by Kwame Brathwaite.<\/p>\n

The opening exhibition, \u201cAperture Loves New York<\/a>,\u201d includes photographs from Aperture\u2019s collection alongside books by Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, Nan Goldin, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the installations in the gallery will connect to our work, either to a current issue of the magazine, to a book we\u2019re publishing, to our program, but without trying to pretend to be a museum or a commercial gallery or a school or anything else,\u201d said Meister.<\/p>\n

\u201cAperture Loves New York\u201d will feature 24 photographs by 24 different photographers. It is on view through Nov. 1. The gallery and bookshop will be open to the public Wednesdays through Sundays.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The inside of Aperture. Photo by Kris Graves \u00a9 Aperture. By Scott Etkin Lovers of photography have a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-350392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}