Artists represented in the collection include Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, Judy Chicago, Winslow Homer, Edgar Degas, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Max Weber.

[14] Brooklyn officials hosted an architectural design competition for the building, eventually awarding the contract to McKim, Mead & White.

[34] New York City mayor Seth Low signed a bill in August 1902, approving $150,000 for the construction of the Brooklyn Institute's eastern wing and pavilion.

[56] In April 1922, governor Nathan L. Miller signed legislation authorizing the New York City government to issue bonds to fund wings F and G of the Brooklyn Museum.

[57] The New York City Board of Estimate refused to approve the Brooklyn Institute trustees' request for $875,000,[58] and mayor John Francis Hylan also blocked the funding.

[151] After Robert Buck became director in 1983, he began hosting additional art classes, attracting members, and raising money for the museum,[152] which struggled to compete with more famous institutions in Manhattan.

[160] Museum officials held an architectural design competition to redesign the west wing,[161][162] attracting 103 competitors;[163] they hired Arata Isozaki of James Stewart Polshek Partners that October.

[164][165] Isozaki's design retained much of McKim, Mead & White's original plan but included a "great hall" and trapezoidal courtyards,[165] as well as an angled rear wall and an obelisk.

[163] Buck expressed optimism that media coverage of the design competition would attract additional visitors, even if the master plan was never completely carried out.

[218][219] The Brooklyn Museum building is a steel frame structure clad in masonry, designed in the neoclassical style by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White and built by the Carlin Construction Company.

[174] The primary elevation of the facade, facing north along Eastern Parkway, is 510 feet (160 m) wide and consists of the west and east wings, which flank a projecting pavilion with a portico.

The remaining corners of the first floor would have included several additional galleries for the museum's permanent collections, and the light courts would have exhibited large objects.

[7] The lobby, containing black-glass panels and indirect lighting, was described in the 1939 WPA Guide to New York City as "an example of the best in modern architecture... devoid of the elaborate decoration which so often clutters up the entrances of public building.

The museum is the site of the annual Brooklyn Artists Ball which has included celebrity hosts such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Liv Tyler.

[2] In the twentieth century, Brooklyn Museum exhibitions sought to present an encyclopedic view of art and culture, with a focus on educating a broad public.

[275][276] The museum's acquisitions during this time also included such varied objects as the interior of a Swiss house,[277] a stained glass window,[278] and a pipe organ.

[280] The 17th-century Jans Martense Schenck house became part of the Brooklyn Museum's collection in the 1950s,[281] as did the interior of a room in John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s Midtown Manhattan home.

[285] Ghent's first exhibition, Contemporary Afro-American Arts (1968), included artists Joe Overstreet, Kay Brown, Frank Smith, and Otto Neals.

[124][286] In 1999–2000, the Sensation exhibition of Charles Saatchi's collection provoked controversy for its inclusion of works such as Chris Ofili's The Holy Virgin Mary.

[291][292] Other exhibitions have showcased the works of various contemporary artists including Patrick Kelly, Chuck Close, Denis Peterson, Ron Mueck, Takashi Murakami, Mat Benote,[293] Kiki Smith, Jim Dine, Robert Rauschenberg, Ching Ho Cheng, Sylvia Sleigh William Wegman, Jimmy de Sana, Oscar yi Hou, Baseera Khan, Loraine O'Grady, John Edmonds, Cecilia Vicuña, and a 2004 survey show of work by Brooklyn artists, Open House: Working in Brooklyn.

[294] In 2008, curator Edna Russman announced that she believes 10 out of 30 works of Coptic art held in the museum's collection—second-largest in North America are fake.

Represented in the American art collection are works by artists such as William Edmondson (Angel, date unknown), John Singer Sargent's Paul César Helleu sketching his wife Alice Guérin (ca.

[315] In 2018, the museum drew criticism from groups including Decolonize This Place for its hiring of a white woman as Consulting Curator of African Arts.

The museum lists "coconut fiber, feathers, shells, clay, bone, human hair, wood, moss, and spider webs"[318] as among the materials used to make artworks that include masks, tapa cloths, sculpture, and jewelry.

[319] The Museum has a collection of Native America Artifacts acquired by Dr. Nathan Sturges Jarvis (surgeon) who was stationed at Fort Snelling, Minnesota 1833–1836.

[321][192] Spanning 8,300 square feet (770 m2),[192] it is dedicated to preserving the history of the movement since the late 20th century, as well as raising awareness of feminist contributions to art, and informing the future of this area of artistic dialogue.

Along with an exhibition space and library, the center features a gallery housing a masterwork by Judy Chicago, a large installation called The Dinner Party (1974–1979).

It has 19th-century French paintings by Charles Daubigny, Narcisse Virgilio Díaz, Eugène Boudin ("Port, Le Havre"), Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, Gustave Caillebotte ("Railway Bridge at Argenteuil"), Claude Monet ("Doges Palace, Venice"), the French sculptor Alfred Barye, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Cézanne as well as many others.

[336] The museum has posted many pieces to a digital collection that allows the public to tag and curate sets of objects online, as well as solicit additional scholarship contributions.

Lehman had also brought more controversial exhibits, such as a 1999 show that included Chris Ofili's infamous dung-decorated The Holy Virgin Mary, to the museum.