BMW Guggenheim Lab Ends Successful New York City Run with More than 300,000 Participants from Around the World. Next Stop Berlin on Nine-City, Six-Year Tour.

New York/Munich, October 28, 2011. At the close of the inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York City on October 16, Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, and Frank-Peter Arndt, Member of the Board of Management, BMW AG, announced that the Lab attracted 54,000 visitors from 60 countries during its 2 1/2 month run from August 3 to October 16, 2011, and that 329,000 users from more than 150 countries have visited the bmwguggenheimlab.org website.

The BMW Guggenheim Lab New York was located at First Park, Houston Street at 2nd Avenue, and housed in an innovative mobile structure designed by Tokyo-based architects Atelier Bow-Wow. Over 53 days, the inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab—a combination think tank, public forum, and community center—offered 58 talks, 48 workshops, 28 screenings, 24 special events, 21 tours, and nine fieldwork sessions, all of which were developed by the New York Lab Team, together with Guggenheim curators, to explore urban issues and strategies relating to the theme of Confronting Comfort. 

In addition to website visitors, the BMW Guggenheim Lab received 45,000   Facebook likes and more than 40,000 YouTube views. The Lab’s interactive online game, Urbanology, has been played more than 26,000 times, and nearly 3,000 people have submitted ideas for the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s interactive logo.

“We never could have imagined the enormous level of interest and enthusiastic exchange of ideas that the BMW Guggenheim Lab and its programming generated in New York City, both on the ground and online. Even with an earthquake, a hurricane and 29 inches of rain, the Lab sparked countless conversations around the world, and even inspired a marriage proposal,” said Richard Armstrong. “We could not have achieved this success without the foresight, support and trust of the East Village community, the City of New York, and our fantastic collaborator BMW.”

“We are delighted with the tremendous response and enthusiasm that the BMW Guggenheim Lab has generated in New York,” said Frank-Peter Arndt, Member of the Board of Management, BMW AG. “This has been a perfect start to the mobile laboratory’s six-year journey to nine mega cities around the world.”

During its six-year run, which will conclude in late 2016, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will travel to nine cities in three successive cycles, each with its own distinct theme and architectural structure, to help raise awareness of important urban challenges and yield sustainable benefits for cities around the world. Berlin is the next stop for the Lab, in late spring 2012, to be followed by Mumbai in late 2012.

The BMW Guggenheim Lab is curated by David van der Leer, Assistant Curator, Architecture and Urban Studies, and Maria Nicanor, Assistant Curator, Architecture.

About the BMW Guggenheim Lab Online
The BMW Guggenheim Lab Website (bmwguggenheimlab.org), blog ( blog.bmwguggenheimlab.org), and online communities further extend the opportunity to participate in this multidisciplinary urban experiment worldwide. Visitors are invited to become members of the BMW Guggenheim Lab's dedicated social communities at:

twitter.com/bmwgugglab and #BGLab
facebook.com/bmwguggenheimlab
youtube.com/bmwguggenheimlab
flickr.com/bmwguggenheimlab
foursquare.com/bmwgugglab

For the complete press materials, go to press.bmwgroup.com or guggenheim.org/presskits

For publicity images and video, go to guggenheim.org/pressimages

User ID = photoservice, Password = presspass

About BMW’s Cultural Commitment

 In 2011 the BMW Group is celebrating 40 years of international cultural commitment. For 40 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in more than 100 cultural cooperations worldwide. The company places the main focus of its long-term commitment on modern and contemporary art, jazz and classical music as well as architecture and design. The BMW Group has also been ranked industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the last six years. In 1972, three large-scale paintings were created by the artist Gerhard Richter specifically for the foyer of the BMW Group's Munich headquarters. Since then, artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur Eliasson, Thomas Demand and Jeff Koons have co-operated with BMW. The company has also commissioned famous architects such as Karl Schwanzer, Zaha Hadid and Coop Himmelb(l)au to design important corporate buildings and plants. In 2011, the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a global initiative of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Guggenheim Museum and the BMW Group will open in New York. A movable structure that will be travelling for six years from city to city from North America to Asia, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will bring together international artists and scientists and will be a public place for sharing ideas on major issues affecting urban life.

The BMW Group guarantees absolute creative freedom in all the cultural activities it is involved in – as this is just as essential for groundbreaking artistic work as it is for major innovations in a successful business.

More information about BMW’s cultural commitment can be found at bmwgroup.com/culture and bmw.com/bmwguggenheimlab.

The BMW Group

The BMW Group is one of the most successful manufacturers of automobiles and motorcycles in the world with its BMW, MINI, Husqvarna Motorcycles and Rolls-Royce brands. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 24 production facilities in 13 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.

During the financial year 2010, the BMW Group sold 1.46 million cars and more than 110,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for 2010 was euro 4.8 billion on revenues amounting to euro 60.5 billion. At 31 December 2010, the BMW Group had a workforce of approximately 95,500 employees.

The success of the BMW Group has always been built on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy. As a result of its efforts, the BMW Group has been ranked industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the last six years.

For questions please contact:

Dr. Thomas Girst                                                   

BMW Group                                       

+49 89 382 20067                                                                      

thomas.girst@bmw.de    

Tina Vaz/ Betsy Ennis  

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

+1 212 423 3840  

pressoffice@guggenheim.org             

Melissa Parsoff

Ruder Finn

+1 212 593 5889 

parsoffm@ruderfinn.com