The libraries of The New School have been a vital source for scholarly study and creative inspiration throughout the history of the school. Before their incorporation as a unified Library, The New School, Parsons School of Design, and Mannes School of Music each had separate libraries.

When Gerald and Beatrice Banu sought approval for refurbishing the cast iron balustrades that grace the front of their 114 year-old Greenwich Village brownstone, the New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission quickly gave its approval.

One of Ecuador’s most important 20th century artists, Camilo Egas, built the first Art Department at the New School that included on its faculty Berenice Abbott, Stuart Davis, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Lisette Model during his 30 years of directorship.

The New School has its well-known triumphs, from the rescue of persecuted scholars that formed the University in Exile to its groundbreaking courses in film, psychoanalysis, and urban studies. But, as with most institutions, there is little attention to more controversial decisions.

One of the many reasons the New School is proud of the Orozco Room is the relative rarity of “true fresco” murals in the United States.

A New School masterpiece made an unexpected showing in the movie The Monuments Men (2014). The film was about the European artworks that the Nazis scoured away in mines during World War II, hoping to gather, own, and control civilization.

The ceiling is painted black, excepting the reflecting area in the center and around the walls which are white. To the level of the tops of the doors, the walls are painted in colors, one section being orange and the next yellow with blue next to that and so on.

The address at 65 Fifth Avenue has a storied past. Back in 1881, when it was a four story brownstone, the building housed the headquarters of Thomas Edison’s “new” electrical company. It became the first building to be lit exclusively by electricity.

Although it is hard to tell from the contemporary perspective, for a long time the austere gray geometric lines of the facade of 66 West 12th Street hid behind them a much more eclectic masterpiece.

In 1919, the New School found its first home in Chelsea, around the corner from the offices of the New Republic, a convenience given that its editor Herbert Croly served as one of the main instigators of the school.

It must be that the New School for Social Research was designed for the up-to-date woman. It is bold just where she is bold.

When the New School for Social Research opened its building at 66 W. 12th St. in January 1931, the auditorium astonished people.

When the Dramatic Workshop separated from the New School, one of its main gripes was the lack of space. The records from 1943 show 20 full time students. This grew to 50 students by 1944 and 310 in 1946. Then there were the evening students – 440 in 1944, which grew steadily to 1,070 by 1947.

What could have been my feeling when Orozco, the greatest mural painter of our time, proposed to contribute a mural. All I could say was, ‘God bless you. Paint me the picture. Paint as you must. I assure you freedom.’

– Alvin Johnson