Cultured magazine pairs three artists with three independent fashion designers to mark the reopening of the New Museum on March 21, 2026, following a 60,000-square-foot expansion by OMA. In this installment, Serbian sculptor Ivana Bašić, whose work *Blossoming Being #2* appears in the inaugural exhibition “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” meets designer Claire Sullivan of Miss Claire Sullivan. Their conversation covers their New York origin stories, the city’s affordability crisis, and the challenges of making a creative life in the city.
The article matters because it captures a moment of institutional transformation—the New Museum doubling its footprint—while using the artist-designer pairing to explore broader themes of downtown New York’s evolving creative ecosystem. The dialogue between Bašić and Sullivan reflects how artists and fashion designers navigate survival, trauma, and ambition in a city that remains a global cultural hub but is increasingly unaffordable. The piece also highlights the New Museum’s continued role as a counterweight to uptown institutions, championing avant-garde art and interdisciplinary collaboration.