His initiatives there include strengthening MoMA's contemporary art program, significantly developing the collection holdings in all media, and guiding two major campaigns for the renovation, expansion, and endowment of the museum.

[2] He has lectured and written extensively in support of contemporary art and artists and the role of museums in society, among other topics.

[9] In February 1999, Lowry and Alanna Heiss, former director of the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, initiated the merger of their two organizations.

[12] Lowry led MoMA's 2019 renovation and expansion, developed with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler, to add more than 40,000 square feet of new gallery space[13] and offer a deep rethinking of MoMA's collection, and, by extension, of the history of art for the past century and a half.

[23] The trust fund was created by David Rockefeller and Agnes Gund, who made the payments "at the request of and for the benefit of the museum";[23] Lowry and his wife Susan, a Montreal-born landscape architect, live rent-free in a $6-million apartment located in MoMA's residential tower[24] and purchased by the New York Fine Arts Support Trust in 2004.