Edges of Ailey Exhibition at the Whitney Museum

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, and The Ailey School

Edges of Ailey is the first large-scale museum exhibition to reflect on the life, work, and legacy of our visionary founder, Alvin Ailey. Presented by the Whitney Museum of American Art in its 18,000+ square-foot fifth-floor galleries, this multifaceted presentation encompasses a multimedia exhibition, daily performance program, and scholarly catalogue to offer a richly layered experience for understanding the artist anew.

The exhibition situates Mr. Ailey within a broader social, creative, and cultural context, illuminating the artists who influenced and collaborated with him, the spaces and scenes he frequented, and the dynamic themes explored within his dances through painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, film and video, rehearsal footage, ephemera, and other archival materials.

As part of the exhibition, the Whitney and AILEY are presenting an ambitious program of performances, classes, workshops, and panel discussions in the Whitney's theater and gallery spaces, further exploring Alvin Ailey's legacy and AILEY's broad scope of activities. Attendance for specific program events requires advance booking. Explore the program and plan your visit: whitney.org/exhibitions/edges-of-ailey

Press Release: The Whitney Museum Announces Over 90 Live Dance Performances, Classes, Talks, And More In Conjunction With Edges Of Ailey

Featured Images

Alvin Ailey American Dance ... (Read More) Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Isaiah Day (Hide)

Ailey II's Jordyn White

Alvin Ailey American Dance ... (Read More) Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Isaiah Day, Christopher Taylor, and The Ailey School's Carley Brooks (Hide)

Alvin Ailey American Dance ... (Read More) Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, and The Ailey School (Hide)

Featured Video

Whitney Museum's Edges of Ailey ... (Read More) Whitney Museum's Edges of Ailey Exhibition (Hide)

Featured Press Coverage

TheNewYorkTimes_AILEY_EdgesOfAiley_TheWhitney_Feature_PRINT_09.27.24

September 26, 2024

The New York Times - Works Inspired By Wonders

Music’s in the air, and there’s painting and sculpture in imaginative variety as an art museum gives rare treatment to an ephemeral medium. With the spirited, sense-surround show called Edges of Ailey at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the New York art season gets off to an exuberant, enveloping, though puzzling start. The show is a major institutional tribute to the American choreographer and performer Alvin Ailey (1931-1989). It’s also a relatively rare example of a traditionally object-intensive art museum giving full-scale treatment to the ephemeral medium of dance.

FriezeMagazine_AILEY_EdgesOfAiley_TheWhitney_ConstanceStamatiou_Feature_PRINT_October2024

September 25, 2024

Frieze Magazine - Carry Forward

As a retrospective opens at the Whitney Museum, New York, writers, curators and those close to the choreographer explore his vision to transform American dance

WMagazine_AILEY_EdgesOfAiley_Feature_09.25.24

September 25, 2024

W Magazine - Alvin Ailey’s Incredible Life of Dance (Finally) Gets the Museum Treatment

Alvin Ailey is one of the most accomplished and revered dancers in history. And yet, there has never been a wide-ranging exhibition chronicling his singular life, style of dance, company, and the impact he left on American culture. “Around 2018, there was a range of shows at museums about dance: the Lincoln Kirstein ballet, the Judson Dance Theater, Merce Cunningham,” Adrienne Edwards, senior curator at The Whitney Museum in New York City, told me recently. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘Why not Ailey? Why hasn’t a museum done a show about him?’”