THE STREET THAT DOESN’T STAND STILL

A fascinating new exhibition explores
the colorful, chaotic, and endlessly reinvented
history of one of New York’s most storied streets

The Bowery has worn more identities than perhaps any other street in New York. Over four centuries it has been a Lenape footpath, farmland, an entertainment district, the city’s notorious skid row, and eventually a haven for artists and outsiders. This fall, the New Museum turns its attention to that remarkable history with The Bowery: Devil’s Mile, the first exhibition devoted entirely to the street’s extraordinary evolution.

Opening September 24, the exhibition assembles an eclectic collection of artifacts, photographs, archival materials, and artwork that bring the neighborhood’s colorful past vividly to life. Among the highlights are an 1830s hand-pumped fire engine, the bizarre “Feejee Mermaid” that once lured curious crowds into dime museums, and Jacob Riis‘s groundbreaking photographs from How the Other Half Lives, whose startling flash-lit images exposed the realities of New York’s tenements to the wider public. The exhibition also showcases works by artists whose lives and careers intersected with the Bowery, including Keith Haring, Nan Goldin, Eva Hesse, Robert Indiana, Cy Twombly, Martha Rosler, Lynda Benglis, John Giorno, and many others.

Rather than presenting the Bowery as a static historical landmark, The Bowery: Devil’s Mile captures it as a place in constant reinvention—a neighborhood where immigrants, performers, artists, drifters, and visionaries repeatedly remade both themselves and the city around them. Timed to coincide with the opening of the New Museum’s expanded home on the Bowery, the exhibition offers a richly layered portrait of one of New York’s most fascinating streets, revealing why its history continues to resonate far beyond its few remarkable blocks.

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The Bowery: Devil’s Mile
New Museum
235 Bowery in New York City
September 24, 2026 – January 31, 2027
for tickets and information, visit New Museum

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