Pompidou Centre to open space next to New York

This photo taken on June 2, 2021 shows a general view of the Pathside building in Jersey City which will become an exhibition space with France's Pompidou Centre in 2024

New York (AFP) - Paris's Pompidou Centre will open an exhibition and creative space in Jersey City -- which borders New York -- in 2024, the museum and city announced on Friday.

It will be the fifth major partnership and the first in the United States for the centre, which has already lent its name to spaces in Shanghai, Brussels, Malaga and Metz.

The space will be housed in the 58,000 square-foot Pathside Building, which was constructed in 1912 and was originally part of a train station.

It will be available to local artists and multidisciplinary in nature, housing visual and performing arts, architecture and design, said Pompidou Centre president Serge Lasvignes.

"In the field of contemporary art, America is crucial," he said.

As with its other partnerships, the local partner pays for the redevelopment of the site and its operating costs. 

In return, the Pompidou Centre, which will close in Paris for renovations at the end of 2023 until early 2027, will share works from its collection for display.

Jersey City, located on the west banks of the Hudson River, opposite New York City, is a former industrial city undergoing major change, with luxury towers replacing factories.

Lasvignes said Jersey's burgeoning arts scene made it a more interesting proposition than New York itself, which already has two major contemporary art museums: MoMa and the Whitney.

© Agence France-Presse