From May 16 to June 28, 1992, the New Museum presented “The Art Mall: A Social Space,” an exhibition that sought to examine the function of the shopping mall in society, and to use it as a model for the exhibition of art in a museum context. This project offered the Museum an opportunity to expand traditional exhibition practice, address broader audiences, and to provide artists an occasion to interact with the public in unconventional ways.

Artists were invited to develop programs based on the concept of the shopping mall as a prominent force which shapes cultural ideology and identity through consumerism. The resulting multidisciplinary group project explored the nature of public space as a setting for community interaction, and probed the possibilities and limitations of both the museum and the mall.