On Thursday Michelle Obama attended the opening of the new Whitney Museum of American Art located in New York City’s Meatpacking District. The First Lady urged cultural institutions to open their doors and give free admission to disadvantaged kids.

” There are so many kids in this country who look at places like museums, concert halls and other cultural centers and they think to themselves, ‘ Well that’s not a place for me.. for someone who looks like me, for someone who comes from my neighborhood’,” she said at the dedication of the new museum. ” In fact I guarantee you right now there’s kids living less than a mile away from here who would never in a million years think that they would be welcomed to this museum”. Mrs Obama went on to say ” Growing up in the Southside of Chicago I was one of those kids, so I know the feeling of not belonging in a place like this”. Not only did the First Lady “fall in love” with the museum but she also mentioned that “the freight elevator was the most beautiful elevator she had ever ridden”.

The director of The Whitney Museum, Adam Weinberg teamed up with architect Renzo Piano for almost seven years to put together this 220,000 square feet museum. It is three times the size of the old Whitney Museum that was located on Madison ave, which closed down last year. The museum has 50,000 square feet of indoor galleries, 13,000 square feet of exhibition space and 650 pieces of art from artists such as Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keefe, Andy Warhol and many more.

The museum will be offering educational programming, such as educational activities, free visits for city schools and after school programming that gives high school students the opportunity to work with contemporary Artists.

The Whitney Museum is now opened to the public.

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