The Museum of Modern Art Announces Major Gift from The Legacy Emilio Ambasz Foundation (LEAF) to Establish a Research Institute

The Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment Will Be Dedicated to Understanding the Interaction between Architecture and Ecology

The Museum of Modern Art announced today the establishment of The Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment. The goals of the Institute, through a range of curatorial programs and research initiatives, are to foster dialogue, promote conversation, and facilitate research around the relationship between the built and the natural environment–making the interaction between architecture and ecology visible and accessible to Museum visitors and the wider public while highlighting the urgent need for an ecological recalibration. The Ambasz Institute will focus in particular on digital initiatives in order to both advance a global conversation on this crucial issue and to ensure that the Institute reaches a diverse audience. The Institute, to be located on MoMA’s Midtown Manhattan campus within the Department of Architecture and Design, will specifically study creative approaches to design at all scales of the built environment–buildings, cities, landscapes, and objects– in order to work toward an ecological future and environmental justice.