Today, NYC Parks announced the start of free public tours of Hart Island, the City’s public cemetery, in an effort to increase access to the island, reduce historical stigmas surrounding itspast, and educate the public about its role as an important piece of City infrastructure.
Beginning on November 21, 2023, NYC Parks’ Urban Park Rangers will offer free walking tours of the island twice per month. Registration is required through an online form and participants will be selected by lottery. All public history tours are done on foot and last approximately 2.5 hours, with ferry transportation provided to and from Hart Island.
The Holiday Train Show returns bigger than ever with more trains and an all-new, outdoor train display. Watch model trains zip past nearly 200 famous New York landmarks in the warmth of the Conservatory…or head outsideto capture your perfect holiday photos at our all new outdoor mountainscape. After dark, join us for NYBG GLOWand discover the beauty of our landscape and historic buildings, illuminated across the grounds. And don’t miss the return of our fan-favorite Bar Car Nights, 21-and-over evenings featuring the Holiday Train Show and curated cocktails. These special evenings feature music, experiences, food, and more—making for the ultimate night out this season. On view beginning November 17th.
House is a Feeling. Image courtesy CCCADI + XCLSV Events
Celebrate the close of CCCADI’s five-month-long series Rhythm, Bass and Place and tap into the power and intersection of Black Music Appreciation and Caribbean Heritage Month at House is a Feeling, presented in collaboration with XCLSV Events on June 24th at Sankofa Haus in the Bronx.
The High Bridge, 1849 by artist F. (Fanny) Palmer. Image credit: New York Public Library Digital Collection.
On June 6, NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue joined NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, NYC Department of Design and Construction First Deputy Commissioner Eric Macfarlane, Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, Council Member Althea Stevens, Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Sonia Manzano (Maria from “Sesame Street”), Bronx Children’s Museum, Chauncy Young of Harlem River Working Group, community organizations, local residents, and students to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the High Bridge.
Main image: Elba Cabrera Papers. Tito Puente playing at the “Oye Willie” Block Party. Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library & Archives, Hunter College, CUNY.
The Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) will host the panel “El Rey del Timbal: Tito Puente Centennial Celebration” at Hostos Community College’s Repertory Theatre on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, at 4 p.m. The event will feature Tito Puente’s closest friends, collaborators, and lifelong colleagues.
With over eight million people and as many as 800 languages spoken in New York City, it’s up to the people to keep their culture shining bright. This April, People’s Theatre Project will present the world premiere of an original play – developed by immigrant artists and starring a majority-immigrant cast.
On Saturday, April 12th, during New York City’s celebration of Immigrant Heritage Week 2023, People’s Theatre Project will welcome audiences to the world premiere of The Diamond at Pregones Theater in the Bronx.
Abigail DeVille, Freedom Triumphant in War and Peace, 2021, and The Observatory, 2021. Installation view of Brand New Heavies, curated by Racquel Chevremont and Mickalene Thomas (Deux Femmes Noires), at Pioneer Works. Photo by Olympia Shannon / Dan Bradica Studio.
Currently on view at the Bronx Museum of the Arts is Abigail DeVille: Bronx Heavens, the artist’s first museum survey, examining the myths and realities of local familial and ancestral histories, and the convoluted notion of freedom in a country fraught with oppression and racism. The exhibition features DeVille’s work created over the past ten years, examining different aspects of the borough’s 120 year history as a haven for immigrant and migrant communities, including for several generations of DeVille’s family who have lived in the area and were part of the Great Migration.
Dedication of Heintz Memorial. Photo credit: NYC Parks/Malcolm Pinckney
NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue and Parks Director of Art & Antiquities Jonathan Kuhn joined the Public Design Commission’s Senior Manager of Art, Conservation & Design Carolina Llano, State Senator Jose Serrano, President of the 161 Street BID Trey Jenkins, Community Board 4 Parks Chair Paul Lozito, members of the Friends of Four Parks Alliance, students and staff from All Hollows High School, and members of the community to celebrate the rededication of the Heintz Memorial and the restoration and reinstallation of the Fame statue in Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx.
NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue & New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) Chief Infrastructure Officer Josh Kraus joined Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, State Assembly Member Michael Benedetto, Council Member Marjorie Velazquez, Council Member Amanda Farias, Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr., President of the Friends of Pelham Bay Park Nilka Martell, Community Board 10 Parks Chair Terence Franklin, and members of the community to officially break ground on the $87 million Orchard Beach Pavilion project to restore the historic 140,000 square foot space.
Image via Marvel Zoom meeting with NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts, the city’s only free contemporary art museum, is pleased to reveal schematic designs for the renovation of its new multi-story entrance and lobby on the corner of Grand Concourse and 165th Street by Marvel, an award-winning architecture, landscape architecture, interiors and urban planning practice. Marking the Museum’s 50th anniversary, the $26 million renovation is supported by city funds––with additional support from the state––and is overseen by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) on behalf of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) and The Bronx Museum, and is slated for completion in 2025. Coinciding with this announcement, the Museum is pleased to share a refresh of its brand identity and website by New York based strategy and design studio Team. It is the first time the Museum’s identity has been redesigned in over two decades.
Image via Marvel Zoom meeting with NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.
On May 9, 2023, Marvel Designs presented updated plans to NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, uniting the three buildings that make up the Bronx Museum of the Arts Campus. The vote, 9 yay, 1 nay, allows the project to move forward. Here is what we might look forward to, with images below.
See the Battery Maritime Building ~ a recent addition to the collection. Image courtesy NYBG.
NYBG’s Holiday Train Show—a favorite holiday tradition—has been making memories for over 30 years! See model trains zip through an enchanting display of more than 190 replicas of New York landmarks, each delightfully re-created from natural materials such as birch bark, lotus pods, and cinnamon sticks.
Dinosaur Safari at Bronx Zoo. Photo credit: Julie Larsen Maher
Some of the largest animals that ever roamed the Earth have made a comeback this summer at the Bronx Zoo. Dinosaur Safari is returning with MORE dinosaurs than ever before in a new experience that will immerse visitors in a recreation of a world that disappeared millions of years ago. This limited engagement will open to the public on Monday, April 11th.
Image: Jamel Shabazz, Looking to the Future. Flatbush, Brooklyn, 1980
Starting at the young age of fifteen, Brooklyn born photographer Jamel Shabazz identified early on the core subject of his lifelong investigation: the men and women, young and old, who invest the streets of New York with a high degree of theater and style, mixing traditions and cultures. Despite following a celebrated tradition of street photography that includes Gordon Parks, Garry Winogrand, and Lee Friedlander, it is to his credit that Shabazz has been one of the first photographers to realize the joyous, infectious potential of youth culture in neighborhoods such as Red Hook, Brownsville, Flatbush, Fort Greene, Harlem, Manhattan’s Lower East Side and the Grand Concourse section of the Bronx.
Don’t miss the NYC Parks Department virtual community meeting for Haffen Park Athletic Complex Reconstruction, to be held tonight ~ March 22nd from 6-7pm.
Green Roof atop St. Mary’s Rec Center, Bronx. Image credit: NYC Parks/Malcolm Pinckney
This month, (March, 2022), New York City students made the Bronx a little greener by installing 2,000 square feet of green roof atop the St. Mary’s Recreation Center in the South Bronx. As the very first class of Youth Sustainability Corps (YSC), these 30 local High School and College students, under the tutelage of NYC Parks green infrastructure experts, planned new green roof systems which will be installed on 50,000 sqft of Parks’ facility rooftops over the coming months. The roof at St. Mary’s – which the students installed themselves – is the first of six sites that will be built out. YSC students also installed new stormwater control measures on the roof at St. Mary’s, and built new raised planting beds, which will grow seasonal vegetables this year.
Bronx Calling: The Fifth AIM Biennial installation image 2 by Argenis Apolinario Photography.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts is pleased to announceBronx Calling: The Fifth AIM Biennial, a meditation on the practice of everyday life in uncertain times. Featuring artworks by 68artists who took part in the 2018 and 2019 cycles of the Bronx Museum’s AIM Fellowship program, the fifth edition of Bronx Calling finds artists responding to the conditions of contemporary life in manifold ways. Whether in traditional or new media, many of the works are recent creations, the result of processing multiple crises—of health, grief, the environment, and identity. The Biennial is part of a series of exhibitions and public programs celebrating the Museum’s 50th anniversary and legacy as an institution dedicated to social justice. Bronx Calling: The Fifth AIM Biennial is curated by Ian Cofre and Eva Mayhabal Davis.
G-scale trains zip through magical displays. Image courtesy NYBG.
NYBG’s Holiday Train Show—a favorite holiday tradition—is back for its 30th year! See model trains zip through an enchanting display of more than 175 New York landmarks, each delightfully re-created from natural materials such as birch bark, lotus pods, and cinnamon sticks. And on select dates, start a new holiday tradition as day turns to night with NYBG GLOW.
From thought to reality, Ann Buttenwieser was inspired by the floating baths of late nineteenth century New York. Establishing The Neptune Foundation, she moved forward with her mission to design and construct a prototype for a new generation of movable waterfront pools for recreationally underserved communities. The Foundation purchased a barge, which was retrofitted to include a half Olympic-size pool ~ and the rest is now history (and in a new book!)
Image credit: NYC Parks/Malcolm Pinckney ~ The 2021 Bronx River Flotilla
The 22nd annual Amazing Bronx River Flotilla is a celebration of the Bronx River as a revitalized resource for recreation, education, and enjoyment. On Saturday, May 15th, over 50 paddlers journeyed 5 miles down the river in canoes and kayaks, traveling past new and restored parks including the Bronx River Forest, River Park, and Concrete Plant Park, ending at Starlight Park.
Chitra Ganesh, When A Girl Is Terrified She Might Run For Her Life, 2021.
Born in Flames: Feminist Futures is a constellation of imagined world-scapes projected by fourteen contemporary artists. Set within the space of an exhibition, the artwork presented is a projection of the artists’ larger visions about futurity. Each section of the show is a microcosmic speculation on what could have been, what is, or what is to come. These worlds are steeped in lessons of our complicated pasts, peppered with the ravages of oppression but also blooming joys. Their work critically examines current struggles for equity by exploring strategies for justice and equality through multifaceted futurisms.
Installation Image by Becca Guzzo, Project for Empty Space
The Bronx Museum of the Arts turns 50 this year, and they are kicking-off this celebratory anniversary with #SeeMeBronx, an interactive project about visibility, intersectionality, and identify with a focus on visibility as a tenet of social justice. We also celebrate The Bronx Museum of the Arts as an admission-free Museum.
Samantha Holmes, Mundilo/Little World at West Farms Square. Image credit: Liz Logan
Samantha Holmes’, “Mundilo/Little World” is the sixth temporary art commission presented at West Farms Square in partnership with the Bronx River Art Center.
NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP, today joined Deputy Bronx Borough President Marricka Scott-McFadden, State Assembly Member Latoya Joyner, City Council Member Vanessa L. Gibson, District Manager Paul Philps and Parks Chair Paul Lozito of Bronx Community Board 4, and community members to officially unveil the reconstructed Grant Park.
The Sensory Garden project. Photo credit: Daniel Avila/NYC Parks
This week, NYC Parks unveiled the renovated Sensory Garden at Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. The Sensory Garden project in the Playground for All Children has expanded the existing planting space within the playground and reconstructed the wheelchair-accessible planting areas. The new design has enhanced and diversified the existing plantings with colorful new foliage and flowers, offering playful light and shadow effects, sounds, touchable textures, and fragrances showcasing native biodiversity.
NYC Parks today announced the completion of eight projects and soon completion of two others, totaling $42.6 million in renovations to Bronx parks. The projects range from new playgrounds and neighborhood improvements to major capital upgrades, and include transformations through the Community Parks Initiative, Parks Without Borders and Anchor Parks.
Sanford Biggers, Khemetstry, 2017. Courtesy the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery
The Bronx Museum of the Arts is reopening on Wednesday, September 9th with Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch, a solo show featuring more than 50 quilt-based works by the artist, and José Parlá: It’s Yours, evoking the artist’s personal connection to the Bronx. Reserve your visit.
COVID-19 has created a swift economic downturn for large and small businesses alike. We have seen tremendous unemployment and a volatile stock market – not unlike the Great Depression in 1929 ~ with so many New Yorkers loosing their businesses and their savings. A remnant of the Great Depression still exists in the Bronx. We thought it a good time to take a look back at the history of The Andrew Freedman Home.
Renamed M.L.K. Plaza, now Captain Roscoe Brown, Ph.D. Plaza
A renovated plaza in the Bronx has been named for Tuskeegee Airman and former Bronx Community College President Captain, Roscoe Brown, Ph.D. NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP joined Former New York City Mayor David Norman Dinkins; Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr.; City Council Member Fernando Cabrera; Community Board 5 District Manager Kenneth Brown; President of Bronx Community College Dr. Thomas Isekenegbe; Dr. Roscoe Brown’s son Dr. Dennis Brown; and community members to cut the ribbon on renovations to the former M.L.K. Plaza, and officially rename it Captain Roscoe Brown, Ph. D. Plaza.
EVER for Monument Art Project, PS 109 at 99th Street & Third Avenue
MonumentArt2015 was the second installment of the International Mural Festival in East Harlem and the Bronx, sponsored by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, José Morales of La Marqueta Retoña and La Respuesta in Santurce, Puerto Rico, partnered with muralist Celso González to produce and curate the festival. Eleven internationally known artists created nine murals throughout El Barrio from 99th Street to 138th Street. Many of the murals focused on El Barrio’s rich culture and heritage. Let’s take a walk, as we watched the artists create in October, 2015.
Shyu Ruey-Shiann, Dreambox, 2012. Wolf 125 motorcycle, motors, metal construction, steel, wire, sensor, transformer.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts opens its doors to Useless: Machines for Dreaming, Thinking and Seeing ~ an exhibition questioning notions of utility, rationality and progress.
The World is Our Oyster by artist Carla Torres ~ one of DOTArt’s largest asphalt art murals, was unveiled December 2, 2018 on Thieriot Avenue in the Bronx.
Andy Wiley-Schwartz with Carey King and Laura Hansen
Out of 105 initial responses to the 2017 Call for Project Ideas presented by Design Trust for Public Space, two winners emerged. The New East Harlem Merchant Association (NHEMA) and South Bronx Unite. On Saturday, December 2nd, South Bronx Unite and Design Trust for Public Space will kick-off Power in Place: Building Community Wealth and Well Beingin Mott Haven-Port Morris – a community asset mapping and planning project, with an open house and celebration. The Event will take place from 3:00-5:00pm at Metropolitan College of New York, 463 East 149th Street in the Bronx. Community members will learn important information on how they can participate in this project.
