For over 65 years, the Institute of Contemporary Art has been introducing to Boston and the country some of the most important contemporary artists of our time, from Pablo Picasso and Robert Rauschenberg to Andy Warhol and Cindy Sherman. This excellence in presenting contemporary art began with the ICA’s inception in 1936. The ICA’s first director, James Sachs Plaut, envisioned this new institution as “an experimental laboratory in which we would present a platform for things that were happening on the contemporary art scene.”

While we continue to develop and present innovative programs, we are also planning what is, perhaps, the most significant and exciting development for the ICA since its founding–a new state-of-the-art building on Boston’s waterfront at Fan Pier, to open in 2006. The first major cultural institution to be built in Boston in almost 100 years, the new ICA will triple our exhibition space and will include a performing arts theatre, educational facilities, a media, and technology center, a bookstore, a gift shop, and restaurant.