The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th-century works created by American artists, but it has hosted exhibitions of art and design from Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

[2] The museum was originally housed in the first floor rotunda (the Veteran's Memorial Hall) of the Bronx County Courthouse, converted using $77,000 in municipal funds.

[9][10][14] The 1988 expansion was designed by Castro-Blanco, Piscioneri & Feder, who renovated the building exterior with black granite and metal, added large continuous "ribbon windows" on the facade, and built a three-story glass atrium at one of the corners, which serves as the museum lobby.

[11][14][25] The 2006 expansion at 1046 Grand Concourse was designed by Miami-based architecture firm Arquitectonica, which added the three-story North Wing building adjacent to the original structure.

It consists of seven irregularly-shaped vertical aluminum pieces connected by fritted glass, resembling an accordion or paper fan.

[5][11][25][26] The side of the structure features black and white concrete blocks organized in geometric patterns, similar to the brick facades of rowhouses and commercial buildings in the Bronx.

[5][14][25][27] These walls are temporary, designed to be removed in the event of future expansion, which would replace the original museum with a residential high-rise building.

[28] This new expansion has been described as "a white box with raw concrete floors" that, although "institutional," serves its purpose of being accessible to all visitors.

[29] In 1987, the museum gained attention for two high-profile exhibitions: a career retrospective of African American artist Romare Bearden[30] and a presentation of the then-evolving school of computer-generated art.

[31] More recent exhibitions have included the 2006 presentation "Tropicalia: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture"[15] and the 2008 overview of street-level photography by Jamel Shabazz, a Harlem-based artist.

The exhibition was inspired by "The Veil" by Georges Seurat and was an attempt to celebrate the work of Gimpaya and a new-era for the En Foco group.

She was previously the executive director of Art in General, a nonprofit organization in New York City,[15] and replaced Olivia Georgia.

[18] In 2011, museum officials also put together a council of residents to serve as "cultural ambassadors" to the community and to advise them on public engagement.

[40] In 2013, it completed a campaign to raise $1 million for a new acquisitions fund that will focus on buying the works of contemporary artists with strong connections to the Bronx.