Guy Calaf for The New York Times The BMW Guggenheim Lab installed in Manhattan in 2011.In 2010 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum announced a six-year project with BMW to create what it called the BMW Guggenheim Lab - three 5,000 square feet architect-designed pop-up structures that would travel in consecutive cycles to three locations - one in the United States, one in Europe and one in Asia - spending three months in each place. At every stop Guggenheim curators would invite leaders in the fields of architecture, art, science, design, technology and education to participate in programs relating to the problems of urban living.
The first lab, which opened on a vacant lot in Manhattan’s East Village in 2011, attracted more than 54,000 visitors before going on to Berlin and Mumbai. But now it turns out, that will be the last lab. BMW has ended its support of the project, which was to have gone through 2016. “BMW will continue to be a global partner of the Guggenheim,’’ said Eleanor R. Goldhar, the Guggenheim’s deputy director of external affairs and chief of global communications. “We are in discussions about future collaborations.’’
Citing what he described as “strategic shifts within the company,’’ Thomas Girst, BMW Group’s head of cultural engagement, said on Tuesday that the company will continue to support the arts and the Guggenheim. “Things change,’’ Mr. Girst added, “But we’re still holding hands with the Guggenheim.’’
Rather than ending with a ! whimper, the lab’s two-year journey will culminate with “Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab,’’ an exhibition that will be on view at the Guggenheim Museum in New York from October 2013 through Jan. 5, 2014.
