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.

[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.

Cullen previously worked as the director and chief curator at the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University.

[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.