Image: Balloon Museum, New York
Balloon Museum has opened its first permanent venue in New York, occupying the Tin Building at 96 South St in the South Street Seaport district of Lower Manhattan. The site opened on 7 August 2026 with the inaugural exhibition 'DAYDREAM: Air becomes Art'.
The organiser describes DAYDREAM as its fifth exhibition and the first conceived as a permanent one, bringing together twelve international artists in interactive environments built around air-filled and inflatable works. Named participants include Marina Abramovic, Paola Pivi, Martin Creed and Philippe Parreno; the exhibition page also lists Ouchhh, Boris Acket, Cyril Lancelin, Valerio Berruti, Alex Schweder, Onion Lab, Daniel Wurtzel, Karina Smigla-Bobinski, Thom Kubli, Hyperstudio and Mauro Pace.
Balloon Museum began in Rome in 2021 and states that it has since travelled to 23 cities and drawn more than seven million visitors, with touring formats including POP AIR, LET'S FLY, EMOTIONAIR and EUPHORIA. The organisation is operated by Lux Entertainment S.p.A.
Opening hours are Monday to Thursday 10am to 7pm, last entry 6pm, and Friday to Sunday and public holidays 9am to 8pm, last entry 7pm. Standard weekday admission starts at $39 for adults aged 18 to 65 and $29 for children aged 3 to 11, rising to $59 and $49 in peak slots; the museum puts the length of a visit at approximately 60 to 90 minutes. No closing date has been announced.
The opening was reported in a Ben Uri newsletter dated Monday 24 August 2026, which gave the museum's floor area as 58,000 square feet. The organiser's own pages do not publish a figure for the size of the space.
