Located on Madison Avenue in New York City, the Whitney Museum of American Art is the leading advocate of 20^th and 21^st Century art. Founded in 1930, the museum is regarded as the preeminent collection of American art and includes major works and materials from the estate of Edward Hopper, the largest public collection of works by Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson; and significant works by Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman, Georgia O'Keeffe, Claes Oldenburg, Kiki Smith, and Andy Warhol, among other artists.

With its history of exhibiting the most promising and influential American artists and provoking intense critical and public debate, the Whitney's signature show, the Biennial, has become the most important survey of the state of contemporary art in America today.

From September 15 through November 30, 2008, the Whitney will present “Progress,” a show that brings together works from the Whitney’s permanent collection, highlighting connections between art and visions of utopia. This presentation includes works in a variety of media at once representing and critiquing the social and aesthetic goals of Modernism. Artists such as Dan Flavin, Ad Reinhardt, and Sherrie Levine recorded the myriad responses, both hopeful and critical, to the transformation in American culture brought on by the influx of utopian ideals. "Progress" also presents more recent works by artists including Paul Sietsema and Joel Sternfeld, who mine Modernism's utopian moments in order to gauge how the familiar narratives of progress in the United States continue to haunt and inspire contemporary experience.

The Madison Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) is a not-for-profit corporation developed in 1996 through a partnership of property owners, merchants, residents, and elected officials. Their goal is to enhance the experience of living, shopping, and working from East 57^th Street to East 86^th Street on Madison Avenue.

On the tony Upper East Side of Manhattan, Madison Avenue is North America's premier luxury district featuring flagship boutiques of the finest European and American designers, and more than 100 world-class art galleries, exquisite restaurants, dozens of spas and salons for exclusive pampering, six internationally renowned hotels, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.