List of Dia Art Foundation locations and sites


There are eleven locations and sites which the Dia Art Foundation considers part of its constellation of art museums and long-term installations. Dia breaks its holdings into two distinct categories: locations and sites. "Locations" include museum structures that contain galleries of smaller works either on permanent or temporary display, while "sites" are long-term art installations placed outside of the gallery context that have been either commissioned or acquired by Dia. All three locations are found in New York state, while the eight sites are located in New York, Utah, New Mexico, and Germany. Currently one location, Dia SoHo, is scheduled to be opened in 2022, and there are seven sites that were once listed by Dia but are no longer listed.
Dia Art Foundation was established in 1974 in New York City by the not yet married Heiner Friedrich and Schlumberger heiress Philippa de Menil, as well as Helen Winkler. They created the institution to help artists realize ambitious projects whose scale and scope is not feasible within the normal museum and gallery systems. With Friedrich and de Menil's combined large fortune, the foundation began supporting minimalist, conceptual, and land artists with, as Vanity Fair describes in a article, "stipends, studios, assistants, and archivists for the individual museums it planned to build for each of them". Beginning with a collection of warehouse spaces in New York and outdoor spaces in the American West, the foundation did not focus on constructing true museums but focused on singular artistic visions. This approach changed slightly in 1987 with the opening of Dia's first rotating exhibition space, the Dia Center for the Arts, now Dia Chelsea, on 22nd Street in New York City. Dia Beacon, a former Nabisco box factory turned into a large-scale museum for the permanent collection, opened in 2013.
The foundation began by working with and collecting the work of only twelve artists: Joseph Beuys, Walter De Maria, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Imi Knoebel, Blinky Palermo, Fred Sandback, James Turrell, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Robert Whitman, and La Monte Young. To this day the foundation owns works by less than 50 artists, but contains a breadth and depth of their work in a way other institutions do not have the resources to maintain. Dia Director Jessica Morgan explains the relationship between Dia and its artists as, "I wouldn't use the word 'family', but these are people we're in communication with almost on a weekly basis, and in some cases we hold the vast majority of their seminal work". Known for its focus on American male minimalist, experimental, and land artists from the 1960s and 1970s, Dia's focus has been changing to include other artists from the era, largely women and Japanese artists, since Morgan became curator in 2015. This gradual refocus is markedly seen in the 2018 acquisition of Sun Tunnels by Nancy Holt, Dia's most recent addition to their list of sites.

Locations

Dia maintains three locations all within New York State. These locations present galleries of work, either owned by or loaned to Dia, in temporary or permanent installations. Dia Chelsea, the first Dia location, was known as the Dia Center for the Arts from its opening in 1987 through the opening of Dia Beacon in 2003.
LocationPlacementYear openedDescriptionNotes
Dia BeaconBeacon,
New York		2003Dia's permanent collection is housed in this former Nabisco box printing factory with each gallery designed for the presentation of a single artist's work.
Dia BridgehamptonBridgehampton,
New York		1979 building purchased by Dia,
1983 Dan Flavin Art Institute established
2020 renamed		Home of the Dan Flavin Art Institute, nine fluorescent light works by the artist on permanent display, the former fire house and church also has a gallery for rotating exhibitions.
Dia ChelseaNew York City,
New York		1987,
2004 closed,
2015 moved and reopened,
2020 renovation and expansion		A collection of three former industrial buildings, architecturally connected during a 2020 renovation, which now hosts temporary exhibitions. Currently closed and scheduled to reopen on September 17, 2020.

Sites

Dia lists eight sites in its catalogue. These sites include commissions, land art, long-term art installations not in a gallery context, and site-specific installations. While focused largely in New York City and the American West, there are sites also placed internationally and elsewhere in the United States. The first sites were a trio of acquisitions and commissions by Walter De Maria in 1977 and the most recently collected site is Sun Tunnels by Nancy Holt acquired in 2018.
SiteArtistPlacementYearYear acquiredDescriptionNotes
7000 OaksJoseph BeuysNew York City,
New York		1982 begun,
1988 NYC installation,
1996 expanded		198837 trees each paired with a roughly four foot tall basalt stone.
Spiral JettyRobert SmithsonGreat Salt Lake at Rozel Point,
Box Elder County,
Utah		19701999A 1,500 foot long by sixteen foot long jetty made from six thousand tons of black basalt and soil from the area arranged in spiral.
Sun TunnelsNancy HoltGreat Basin Desert,
Utah		1973-762018Four concrete cylinders, measuring eighteen feet long by nine feet in diameter, sitting in an open cross layout and arranged to line up with the sunset on solstice days.
The Broken KilometerWalter De MariaNew York City,
New York		19791979A grid of 500 polished brass rods, with a total length of 3,280 feet, layign on the floor and illuminated with metal-halide stadium lights.
The Lightning FieldWalter De MariaQuemado
New Mexico		19771977400 stainless steel poles standing upright to define a horizontal plane over a one mile by one kilometer area.
The New York Earth RoomWalter De MariaNew York City,
New York		19771977A 3,600 square foot room filled with 250 cubic yards of soil to a depth of 22 inches.
The Vertical Earth KilometerWalter De MariaKassel,
Germany		19771977A five centimeter wide, one kilometer long brass rod inserted vertically into the earth with its top flush to the ground.
Times SquareMax NeuhausNew York City,
New York		1977,
2002 reinstalled		2002Sound emanating from a grate in Times Square on a triangular pedestrian island between 45th and 46th streets.

Former sites

There are seven Dia sites, or long term installations, that were once listed in Dia publications or press releases but are no longer categorized as such. These sites were not necessarily removed from view, for instance The Dan Flavin Art Institute became part of Dia Bridgehampton and Dan Flavin's Untitled was moved from Munich, Germany to Dia Beacon.
SiteArtistPlacementYearYear acquiredYear removed from viewDescriptionNotes
Dan Flavin Art InstituteDan FlavinBridgehampton,
New York		1979 building purchased by Dia,
1983 Dan Flavin Art Institute established		1983-The Dan Flavin Art Institute, nine works by the artist on permanent display, now constitutes part of Dia Bridgehampton.
Dream HouseLa Monte Young and Marian ZazeelaNew York City,
New York		197920151985This rendition of Dream House stretched over 6 floors and had more than 20 staff members. Located at the former New York Mercantile Exchange building it closed due to the loss of Dia funding following the 1980s oil glut. Dia later helped fund another, smaller, rendition of the work in TriBeCa.
Fred Sandback MuseumFred SandbackWinchendon,
Massachusetts		1981-1996A former bank building housing works by Sanback was opend by Dia on 1981 and closed in 1996 by the artist.
Puerto Rican Light Jennifer Allora and Guillermo CalzadillaBetween Guayanilla and Peñuelas,
Puerto Rico		2015N/A2018The artists placed Puerto Rican Light , a 1965 fluorescent light sculpture by Dan Flavin, in a cave in the Puerto Rican jungle which can only be accessed by hiking approximately 2 hours to it, and powered it with the use of solar panels.
Rooftop Urban Park ProjectDan GrahamNew York City,
New York		1981-1991 elements created,
1991 on view as composed whole		1997 Two-Way Mirror Cylinder Inside Cube acquired2004located on the roof of the Dia:Chelsea galleries, Graham placed a small urban park containing a pavilion created out of one-way glass, named Two-Way Mirror Cylinder Inside Cube, and a shed for viewing video art.
UntitledDan FlavinNew York City,
New York		19961996Disappears from Dia press releases between February 7, 2017 and February 24, 2017.Flavin’s last artwork using fluorescent light, this site-specific installation was in the two stairwells of Dia's former headquarters at 548 West 22nd Street and is no longer on view.
Untitled Dan FlavinMunich,
Germany		19732005Disappears from Dia press releases between May 18, 2015 and July 17, 2015.58 four foot by four foot sculptures made of metal and fluorescent light fixtures. Now installed at Dia Beacon.

Future locations

Dia has one new location planned. By renovating a retail space in the SoHo section of New York City which Dia already owns, a fourth location will be added to Dia's portfolio in 2022.
LocationPlacementYear proposed to openDescriptionNotes
Dia SoHoNew York City,
New York		2022former retail space at 77 Wooster Street, which Dia owns and has been renting out, will be transformed into a 2,500-square-foot gallery.

Affiliates

Along side the 11 locations and sites Dia manages, they also maintain relationships with 7 affiliate institutions. Dia collaborated and supported these institutions, either financially or by donating or sharing of artworks, early in each origination's development. Two of the affiliates, City by Michael Heizer and Roden Crater by James Turrell, while being partially funded and supported by Dia since the 70's, are still not completed.
SiteArtistPlacementYearDescriptionNotes
Andy Warhol MuseumAndy WarholPittsburgh, Pennsylvania1989 announced,
1994 museum opened		Built in collaboration with the Carnegie Institute and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as one of the four Carnegie Museums, the museum holds the worlds largest collection of art and archival items related to Warhol.
Beacon PointGeorge TrakasBeacon,
New York		1999 initiated,
2001 site clean-up
2007 artwork inaugurated		Water access area designed as an artwork including an angling deck, boardwalk, and bulkhead created in collaboration with Scenic Hudson and Minetta Brook.
Chinati FoundationVariousMarfa,
Texas		1978Began as a collection of works by Donald Judd installed with the help of Dia.
CityMichael HeizerGarden Valley,
Nevada		1972 begun,
not yet completed		A one and a quarter mile long by one quarter of a mile wide land art piece being partially funded by Dia.
Cy Twombly GalleryCy TwomblyHouston,
Texas		1994An installation of Twombly's work built in collaboration with the Menil Collection.
Dream HouseLa Monte Young and Marian ZazeelaNew York City,
New York		1993A sound and light installation which Dia helped fund the installation of.
Roden CraterJames TurrellPainted Desert,
Arizona		1977 land acquired
not yet completed		A large-scale multi-room installation focused on experiencing light located inside an extinct volcanic Cinder cone funded with support by Dia.