The Museum of Arts and Design, formerly known as the American Craft Museum (ACM) is relocating and their facility is for sale. This facility has the potential to become an exciting new cultural venue for Italy in New York City. It contains about 17,000 sq ft. on three floors. The “fit” to the Italian Cultural Foundation’s anticipated space-use and cultural program is ideal. The Museum is at 40 West 53rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, a block of midtown that is one of the most visited in New York City due to the Museum of Modern Art, the American Folk Art Museum, the prestigious Museum Tower residence, the largest art-related New York Public Library and a major subway station.
The Museum is located in a condominium space owned by a Deutsche Bank entity. The Bank makes its headquarters at the location. The American Folk Art Museum opened an exciting new building across from the Craft Museum last December. The Austrian Cultural Forum located on East 52nd Street inaugurated its new cultural center in April 2002 to glowing reviews. The MOMA is undergoing a major expansion and is scheduled to re-open in 2005. These landmark cultural institutions are destined to further increase the current 37 million visitors who come to NYC yearly (7 million of which are foreigners.)

ICFA’s opportunity to make a bold statement for contemporary Italian culture in NYC is clearly evident in this unique period in history, with accelerating globalization and the rapid evolution of the European Union. Culture has indeed become an ever more powerful social and commercial force in the world; in New York City the Scandinavia House, Asia Society, and the Austrian Forum have all recently inaugurated their new cultural centers to glowing acclaim. A New York Times article, “Showing the Flag of Culture (Or Not)” (April 14, 2002) provided a comparative panorama of foreign cultural diplomacy in New York City and revealed paradoxically, that Italy, with its unsurpassed cultural legacy, does not size up with the best of them. The Italian Cultural Foundation was born precisely to make its contribution to show Italy’s true flag of culture, to a discerning and diverse American public.