About

Swiss Institute (SI) is an independent non-profit contemporary art institution dedicated to promoting forward-thinking and experimental art making through innovative exhibitions, education, and programs. 

Committed to the highest standards of curatorial and educational excellence, SI serves as a platform for emerging artists, catalyzes new perspectives on celebrated work, and fosters appreciation for under-recognized positions. SI is committed to being an organization that is diverse, equitable, accessible, and environmentally conscious in its work, structure, and programming. Open to the public  free-of-charge, Swiss Institute seeks to explore how a  Swiss context can be the starting point for international conversations in the fields of visual and performing arts, design, and architecture.

Swiss Institute has been W.A.G.E. certified since 2016.

SI Territorial Recognition

Swiss Institute (SI) is on Lenapehoking, homeland of the Lenape people. Despite settler colonialism and genocide, which resulted in the forcible seizure of land and forced removal of Lenape people, the Lenape people persist as caretakers of this land in diaspora across Turtle Island, including in the Delaware Nation in Anadarko, Oklahoma, Delaware Tribe of Indians in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Bowler, Wisconsin. 

SI commits to learning how we can better uphold Lenape values of generosity, reciprocity, and equity in our exhibitions and programming through education and exchange with Lenape and other Indigenous communities in diaspora here in New York and across Turtle Island, and to sharing more accurate histories alongside artists and the public.

Commitment to Environmental Consciousness

In 2022, SI embarked on a long-term institutional imperative of integrating environmental consciousness into all facets of the institution. This ongoing process of reflection and transformation includes pragmatic changes that reduce the organization’s carbon footprint, artistic programming aligned with environmental sustainability and continued dialogue, knowledge sharing and collective action with our local community and arts organizations across New York and beyond. In 2023, SI pledged to undertake further actions in addition to the crucial measures already carried out. Rather than assuming a didactic approach, SI is publishing this report of completed actions to address our climate impact collaboratively and openly with other arts organizations through an evolving process as we learn with and from each other.