UNIQLO to Become the Exclusive, Multi-Year Sponsor of the Museum of Modern Art's Popular Free Friday Night Admission Program

NEW YORK, April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and UNIQLO announced today that UNIQLO, the global clothing retailer, will be the exclusive, multi-year, corporate sponsor of the Museum's Friday night free admission program, which provides free access to the public to the Museum and all exhibitions from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., every Friday, throughout the year.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130417/NY95213 )

"UNIQLO Free Friday Nights" will launch on May 3, 2013. That evening, the first 1,000 visitors will receive a special UNIQLO tote bag. Also in May, the Museum will begin extending its public schedule to seven days per week.

"UNIQLO Free Friday Nights" will provide increased accessibility to the Museum's exhibitions, collection and film programs for New Yorkers and visitors from around the world.  Since the Free Friday Night Program launched in 2004, nearly three million visitors have enjoyed free admission to MoMA's exhibitions, film screenings and The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, making the Museum one of New York's favorite Friday night social scenes.

"Providing free Museum admission year-round helps MoMA fulfill its mission of developing new audiences and making art accessible to a wider public," said MoMA Director Glenn D. Lowry. "As a major corporate partner, UNIQLO plays an essential role in helping the Museum bring the very best in modern and contemporary art to our diverse national and international audience."

"MoMA is my favorite museum in the world," said Tadashi Yanai, Chairman, President & CEO of Fast Retailing. "I am very pleased that we could open our UNIQLO flagship store on the same street as MoMA in New York City. It is an honor for us to be neighbors with MoMA on 53^rd Street, such a prestigious and central location. I hope that together we can grow and deepen our relationships with the general public, and that the UNIQLO sponsorship can give even greater access to people from all around the world to visit such a leading international museum."

A multi-year partner with the Museum, UNIQLO previously sponsored the MoMA exhibition Tokyo 1955–1970, A New Avant-Garde in 2012.

About UNIQLO and Fast Retailing:
UNIQLO is a brand of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., a leading global Japanese retail holding company that designs, manufactures and sells clothing under seven main brands: Comptoir des Cotonniers, g.u., Helmut Lang, J Brand, Princesse tam.tam, Theory, and UNIQLO. With global sales of approximately 928 billion yen for the 2012 fiscal year ending August 31, 2012, Fast Retailing is currently the world's fourth largest apparel retail company, and UNIQLO is Japan's leading specialty retailer. UNIQLO continues to open large-scale stores in some of the world's most important cities and locations, as part of its ongoing efforts to solidify its status as a truly global brand .Today the company has a total of more than 1,100 stores in 13 markets worldwide including Japan: China, France, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, U.K. and U.S. UNIQLO operates an integrated business model under which it designs, manufactures, markets and sells high-quality, casual apparel. The company believes that truly great clothes should be supremely comfortable, feature universal designs, are of high quality and offer a superb fit to everyone who wears them. With a corporate statement committed to changing clothes, changing conventional wisdom and change the world, Fast Retailing is dedicated to creating great clothing with new and unique value to enrich the lives of people everywhere. For more information about UNIQLO and Fast Retailing, please visit www.uniqlo.com and www.fastretailing.com.

SOURCE UNIQLO