A small vintage circus dancer puppet in a leaping pose on a red fringe-covered platform.
A small vintage circus dancer puppet in a leaping pose on a red fringe-covered platform.

Alexander Calder, Calder's Circus (detail), 1926-31 (installation view, High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 18, 2025–March 9, 2026). Wire, wood, metal, cloth, yarn, paper, cardboard, leather, string, rubber tubing, corks, buttons, rhinestones, pipe cleaners, and bottle caps, dimensions variable. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from a public fundraising campaign in May 1982. One half the funds were contributed by the Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Charitable Trust. Additional major donations were given by The Lauder Foundation; the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.; the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc.; an anonymous donor; The T. M. Evans Foundation, Inc.; MacAndrews & Forbes Group, Incorporated; the DeWitt Wallace Fund, Inc.; Martin and Agneta Gruss; Anne Phillips; Mr. and Mrs. Laurance S. Rockefeller; the Simon Foundation, Inc.; Marylou Whitney; Bankers Trust Company; Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth N. Dayton; Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz; Irvin and Kenneth Feld; Flora Whitney Miller. More than 500 individuals from 26 states and abroad also contributed to the campaign 83.36.1-72. © 2026 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Gus Powell

Last chance

High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100
Through Mar 9
Learn more about the exhibition Book Tickets
A large group of people dance together outdoors, raising their arms, while others watch and walk nearby.

Free at the Whitney

Every Friday evening from 5–10 pm and on the second Sunday of every month, admission to the Museum is free. Both offerings include free access to exhibitions, special programming, city views, and more. Visitors 25 and under are always free, every day. 

More about free offerings

The Whitney Biennial 

The Whitney Biennial is the longest-running survey of American art, and has been a hallmark of the Museum since 1932. The current format—a survey show of work in all media occurring every two years—has been in place since 1973. Mark your calendars for the next iteration, opening March 2026. 

More about the Whitney Biennial

Child drawing on paper titled "Seven Soothing Sketches" with colorful markers and a pill organizer on a table.

Family Programs

Whitney family programs offer artmaking workshops, special events and tours, in-gallery activity guides, and at-home artmaking challenges. Join us for upcoming family events or Free Second Sundays.

More about family programs

A metal art sculpture over water with a city skyline in the background at sunset.

Video

Watch our latest video series to dive deeper into art at the Whitney.

A view of the Museum with people and traffic in the foreground.

Podcasts

Listen to Artists Among Us, featuring long-form and short-form podcasts exploring artworks and events in and around the Whitney through conversation.

Blurred images of mugshots arranged in a grid against a black background.

artport

Check out art that's created specifically for the web on artport—the Whitney's gallery space for Internet and new-media art.

Dive Into Our Collection

View all
  • Painted with angular lines and emotionless faces, three suited men gaze over two open caskets, with a courthouse in the background
    Painted with angular lines and emotionless faces, three suited men gaze over two open caskets, with a courthouse in the background

    Ben Shahn, The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti, 1931–1932. Tempera on canvas mounted on composition board, overall: 84 × 48 in. (213.4 × 121.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Edith and Milton Lowenthal in memory of Juliana Force 49.22. © Estate of Ben Shahn / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • A person lies motionless in the middle of a dim, blue-lit street surrounded by red flares.
    A person lies motionless in the middle of a dim, blue-lit street surrounded by red flares.

    Asco, Decoy Gang War Victim, 1974, printed 2011. Chromogenic print, sheet: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm) Image: 12 11/16 × 19 in. (32.2 × 48.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Photography Committee 2014.46. © 1974, Harry Gamboa Jr.

  • Large gray geometric blocks arranged in angular formation against black walls with radiating white lines.
    Large gray geometric blocks arranged in angular formation against black walls with radiating white lines.

    Robert Morris, Untitled (3 Ls), 1965 refabricated 1970. Stainless steel, dimensions variable. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Howard and Jean Lipman 76.29a-c. © Robert Morris/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

  • Seven young women stand confidently on concrete arches in a fenced urban schoolyard.
    Seven young women stand confidently on concrete arches in a fenced urban schoolyard.

    Kwame Brathwaite, Untitled (Photo shoot at a school for one of the many modeling groups who had begun to embrace natural hairstyles in the 1960s), c.1966, printed 2018. Inkjet print, sheet (sight): 29 5/8 × 29 5/8 in. (75.2 × 75.2 cm) Image (sight): 29 5/8 × 29 5/8 in. (75.2 × 75.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from Brian Silver 2018.136. © Kwame Brathwaite

  • New York skyline with the Statue of Liberty pedestal labeled LIBERTY and a nearby warship flying an American flag.
    New York skyline with the Statue of Liberty pedestal labeled LIBERTY and a nearby warship flying an American flag.

    Florine Stettheimer, New York/Liberty, 1918–1919. Oil on canvas, overall (framed): 70 1/2 × 44 1/2 × 2 in. (179.1 × 113 × 5.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Bequest of William Kelly Simpson in memory of his father, Kenneth F. Simpson, member of the 76th Congress from New York City, and his mother, Helen-Louise Knickerbacker Porter Simpson 2017.190a-b

  • Large abstract painting with layered horizontal color bands including pink cloud, green hills, and deep blue foreground.
    Large abstract painting with layered horizontal color bands including pink cloud, green hills, and deep blue foreground.

    Helen Frankenthaler, Flood, 1967. Acrylic on canvas, overall: 124 1/4 × 140 1/2 in. (315.6 × 356.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art 68.12. © Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Frank WANG Yefeng, The Levitating Perils #2

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.