Initiated in 1978, the New Museum’s second exhibition series, Outside New York, challenged the notion that serious art was not being made outside acknowledged major art centers by showcasing the variety and vitality of art being made around the United States to a New York audience. The series paralleled the Museum’s first exhibition series, New Work / New York, in presenting artists who had little prior exposure or scholarly appraisal - sometimes even in their own communities - and whose practices, likewise, existed outside the mainstream. Outside New York exhibitions were typically these artists’ first presentation in New York.
 
The second and third exhibitions in the Outside New York series were focused more narrowly on the state of Ohio (“Outside New York: The State of Ohio,” 1980) and the city of Seattle (“Outside New York: Seattle,”1983). Like other exhibitions in the series, these were generated directly through studio visits with artists, and emphasized the diversity of work present in each of the areas under consideration.
 
The alternating New Work / New York and Outside New York series were collectively referred to as the New Work format.In 1984, following the New Museum’s relocation to a larger space at 583 Broadway, the Museum merged the final exhibitions of the New Work / New York and Outside New York series in a major exhibition presenting an integrated picture of new work and new ideas from across the United States. The Outside New York portion of the exhibition was later circulated by the Art Museum Association.