Museum of Biblical Art (New York City)

The Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA) was a museum in Manhattan, New York City, that closed in 2015. MOBIA was a non-collecting institution dedicated to exploration of the Bible's legacy in Jewish and Christian art. Started in 1997 as an art gallery at the American Bible Society building in New York City, the museum became an independent entity on May 12, 2005. The museum aimed to become a nationally recognized center of expertise on art and the Bible, while maintaining a secular distance from its subject. Although it grew out of the American Bible Society and was subsidized by that organization, it was not a religious institution and took no stand on religion itself. Rather, MOBIA hoped to open dialogue on a subject it considered under-explored, the influence of religion on art, by providing exhibits and educational programs to visitors. In April 2015, the museum announced it would be closing in June after failing to find a new space. The institution had been paying only $1 in rent on its space in the headquarters of the American Bible Society, but the latter's impending move to Philadelphia made the continuation of that arrangement impossible.

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