7. MFIT
New York City, NY
Housed at Manhattan’s famed Fashion Institute of Technology, The Museum at FIT is known for its innovative and award-winning special exhibitions. In July, it earned accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, the highest national recognition possible for a museum. Founded in the late 1960s, it is visited by 100,000 people each year. With a permanent collection of 50,000 garments and accessories from the 18th century to the present, the Museum at FIT places an emphasis on “aesthetically and historically significant ‘directional’ clothing, with an eye toward contemporary avant-garde fashion.
Since: 1975 Size: 50,000Collection: Exhibitions: 3 exhibitions spaces – one is dedicated to a changing exhibition on historical dress. The large exhibition space downstairs has temporary exhibitions, and the small exhibition space upstairs next to the historical gallery shows exhibits curated by FIT’s Graduate Students
Yearly Visitors: 100,000
Staff: Valerie Steele (Director & Chief Curator), Fred Dennis (Curator)