Your entrance point is the New York State Museum on Madison Avenue, attached to the plaza's south side and facing toward the Capitol. This is the oldest and largest state museum in the United States, founded in 1836. Inside, the museum houses art, artifacts — both prehistoric and historic — and ecofacts that tell the stories of New York’s cultural, natural, and geological development. The institution is operated by the New York State Education Department's Office of Cultural Education.
You are at the entrance to a museum that was formerly located in the State Education Building but now occupies the first four floors of the Cultural Education Center, a ten-story, 1,500,000-square-foot building that also holds the New York State Archives and the New York State Library. In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic forced the museum, the State Archives, and the State Library to close temporarily; staff continued to work behind the scenes, offering virtual programming and online exhibitions. The museum reopened to the public on May 17, 2021 with reduced hours and days of operation and some exhibits still unopened. Notice the plaza stretching toward the Capitol beyond.