Upper West Side Archives

The New York Historical Society to House The American LGBTQ+ Museum

American LGBTQ+ Museum, LGBTQ, New York Historical Society, Upper West Side

The New York Historical Society will be adding more than 70,000 square-feet to its historic building along Central Park’s Upper West Side. This five-story addition will include additional classrooms, galleries, study areas ~ and the the first museum in New York dedicated to LGBTQ+ history and culture, with an anticipated completion date near 2026.

The American LGBTQ+ Museum will be located within a 4,000 square foot gallery space and occupy a full floor. Exciting programming to include rotating exhibitions and a ‘virtual museum’ in addition to its permanent exhibitions.

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The 48th Annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House is on Riverside Drive

Kips Bay, Kips Bay Designer Show House, Upper West Side

Image courtesy kips bay decorator show house

The highly anticipated design event has claimed the historic River Mansion at 337 Riverside Drive at W 106th Street in the Upper West Side as its location. The Show House will be open to the public for one month beginning Thursday, May 11th, 2023. An iconic building on the Upper West Side, the home is also known as “The River Mansion” as the oversized home sits on a corner high point beside Riverside Park with enchanting Hudson River views. With a colorful history beginning in 1902, the building has been home to several notable residents including actress Julia Marlowe, and the Bronfman family including Edgar, Sherry B. and Hannah Bronfman.

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Anya & Andrew Shiva Gallery/John Jay College presents Dissident Practices: How Brazilian Women Artists Respond to Social Change

Anya & Andrew Shiva Gallery at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Upper West Side

Berna Reale, Palomo, 2012, performance. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and New York.

Dissident Practices, on view April 19-June 16, 2023, at Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, explores how Brazilian women artists respond to social change — from the military dictatorship in the mid-1960s to the return to democracy in the mid-1980s, the social changes of the 2000s, the rise of the Right in the late-2010s, and the recent development of a more diverse younger generation fighting for gender equality and LGBTQI+ rights. Curated by Claudia Calirman, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art and Music at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the exhibition will present more than 30 works, including sculpture, video, and photography by 12 prominent and emerging Brazilian artists.

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Smoke Jazz Club Kicks-Off 2023 with 10th Annual Coltrane Festival + More

Jazz, Music, Smoke Jazz Club, Upper West Side

New York’s Smoke Jazz Club kick-starts 2023 with a stellar line-up of some of jazz’s greatest artists during the month of January. SMOKE honors two octogenarians with special birthday celebrations: saxophonist Billy Harper and drummer Al Foster. Master trumpeter and pianist Nicholas Payton is joined by two of the greatest: bassist Buster Williams and drummer Lenny White for a four-night album release series. SMOKE’s 10^th Annual Coltrane Festival, an homage to the great saxophonist and composer John Coltrane, continues for one week with some of today’s leading artists. Wrapping up January is one of the most beloved pianists, Bill Charlap, returning with his Trio: bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington. Scroll down for complete schedule or visit SMOKEjazz.com, including ‘Countdown 2023’ on New Year’s Eve!

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NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission Holds Hearings on the Demolition of West Park Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side

NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, Preservation, Upper West Side

West Park Presbyterian Church (WPPC), 165 West 86th Street, NYC. Image courtesy NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission held hearings on an application to demolish the individual landmarked West-Park Presbyterian Church, located at 541 Amsterdam Avenue in NYC, on the grounds of financial hardship. Speakers lined up on Zoom, on all sides of the issue, with the June 14, 2022 meeting lasting more than four-hours. Below is a little background and a thumbnail sketch of that meeting.

After the June 14th meeting, 8 Commissioners from NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission visited the site. In the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission meeting on July 19, 2022, which lasted 2 1/2 hours, it was determined that after careful (and ongoing expert) review, findings will be presented after Labor Day, and more discussion will take place at that time. View the entire July 19th meeting on YouTube Here.

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Riverside Park Conservancy 2022 Annual Spring Benefit ~ Together Again

Riverside Park, Riverside Park Conservancy, Upper West Side

Riverside Park Conservancy Annual Spring Benefit 2022. Image courtesy Riverside Park Conservancy

At its annual spring benefit on June 7, Riverside Park Conservancy honored Lori Bassman and Mary Frances Shaughnessy, two members of the board who helped to create and grow the organization into what it is today. The Conservancy’s benefit, titled “Together Again,” was their first in-person annual fundraiser since 2019, and it was a great success.

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Inside Art: Create, Climb, Collaborate to Open at Children’s Museum of Manhattan

Children's Museum of Manhattan, Upper West Side

Wish. Installation view of a previous iteration of ‘Wish’, a collaborative artwork in which community members share prayers, wishes, and expressions of gratitude, by Aya Rodriguez-Izumi. Credit: Photo by Alexander Bustamante

This June, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) opens the next edition of its acclaimed visual art exhibition series designed to cultivate critical early learning skills through meaningful engagement with contemporary art and artists. Inside Art: Create, Climb, Collaborate introduces children to powerful tools of self-expression and new ways of seeing everyday spaces with dynamic interactive art installations and commissions, including a surrealist inspired house by Isidro Blasco that children can explore, a wishing tree by Aya Rodriguez-Izumi that visitors can add to, and a multi-story installation designed by BARarchitekten in which art can be both viewed and made. Celebrating art as a vehicle for connection—particularly after two years of isolation and social distancing—the multimedia exhibition explores ideas of community, home, and self.

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Art on the Ave + Columbus Avenue BID Bring ‘Creating Tomorrow’ to Upper West Side

Art on the Ave, Upper West Side

Images courtesy Art on the Avenue, Creating Tomorrow exhibition

The Columbus Avenue BID, a business improvement district that works to improve the quality of life and promote commercial activity in one of the world’s most vibrant, diverse communities, launched its “Creating Tomorrow” exhibit in partnership with Art on the Ave NYC, a New York City-based arts nonprofit. The program will feature local artists’ work that will transform Columbus storefronts into an interactive walking art gallery. Art will be on display from April 22 to June 30.

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Step Inside The Schinasi Mansion ~ The Last Detached Single-Family Home in Manhattan

Architecture, NYC, Preservation, Upper West Side

Schinasi Mansion, 351 Riverside Drive. Photo credit @evanjosephphoto

The Schinasi Mansion, located at 351 Riverside Drive, is the last remaining detached single-family home in Manhattan used as a residence. Built in 1907, the 12,000 square-foot, neo-French-Renaissance style structure was designed by William Tuthill – the architect who designed Carnegie Hall. It was commissioned by the Turkish tobacco baron, Morris Schinasi. Schinasi, who lived there until his death in 1928.

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Riverside Park Conservancy Launches Composting Program

Composting, Riverside Park, Riverside Park Conservancy, Upper West Side

Image courtesy Riverside Park Conservancy

Riverside Park Conservancy today launched a composting program in partnership with theLower East Side Ecology Center, to be housed at 96th Street.

Rather than carting off horticultural waste to landfills, the Conservancy will now keep it in the Park, turning it into nourishing, healthy compost that will be returned to the environment.

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American 2020 Nobel Laureates Honored on NYC Parks Monument

NYC Parks Department, Upper West Side

NYC Parks Acting Commissioner Margaret Nelson today joined Camilla Mellander, Consul General of Sweden in New York, Heidi Olufsen, Consul General of Norway in New York, and 2020 Nobel Prize recipient Dr. Harvey J. Alter to unveil eight new inscriptions to the Nobel Monument at Theodore Roosevelt Park.

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Riverside Park Conservancy Installs Housing for Native Bees!

Bees, Riverside Park, Riverside Park Conservancy, Upper West Side

Riverside Park Conservancy announced this week that it installed special “houses” for native bees in Riverside Park.

In partnership with The Bee Conservancy, Riverside Park Conservancy placed bee houses in Riverside Park South and in the pollinator meadow at 119th Street, in order to provide safe shelter for native bee populations like Mason bees, Carpenter bees, Leaf-cutter bees, and Bumble bees. Bee houses can support bees through the hibernation season, and can help to increase the populations in coming years.

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Broadway Mall Association Unveils ‘Broadway Blooms: Jon Isherwood on Broadway’

Broadway Malls, NYC Parks 'Art in the Parks' Program, Upper West Side

Bloom 1 “the Earth Laughs”, 2020/21; L: Rosa Portogallo marble, 35 x 74 x 37 inches. R: Breccia Viola marble, 31 x 55 x 29 inches. On loan from the Francis J. Greenburger Collection, New York Broadway at 64th Street (Dante Park). Image courtesy The Broadway Mall Association

We just love the Broadway Mall Association public art installations, and have been waiting to see what would come next after ‘Nicolas Holiber: Birds on Broadway.’

Broadway Blooms: Jon Isherwood on Broadway, a sculpture exhibition located at eight locations between 64th Street and 157th Street is now on view. The sculptures are shaped in the form of flowers, celebrating the return to life from a long and difficult winter into spring.

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79th Street Boat Basin to Receive $90 Million in a Total Reconstruction, with Anticipated Reopening in 2025

Upper West Side

NYC Parks today announced the total reconstruction of the 80-year old West 79th Street Boat Basin in Riverside Park. The New York City Economic Development Corporation-managed project will make the historic marina climate resilient, enable more ecological research and education, and expand access for boaters. As part of the project, the entire site will be dredged to enable vessels to navigate the marina at all tidal cycles. The $89.2 million project is funded by $60.9 million from Mayor Bill de Blasio and $28.3 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

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Adrian Sas: Source to Spout Along Riverside Park from 64th~148th Streets

Riverside Park, Riverside Park Conservancy, Upper West Side

Adrian Sas Source to Spout can be seen throughout Riverside Park from 66th to 148th Streets. Image courtesy

Artist Adrian Sas augments our understanding of reality with an installation entitled ‘Source to Spout‘ in Riverside Park. by wrapping a series of panoramic photographs around drinking fountains throughout the park, Sas reveals the system of protected lands, reservoirs, and aqueducts which feeds these fountains. This new and very refreshing installation will be on view from 64th street to 148th street throughout Riverside Park beginning June 18, 2021.

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Riverside Park Conservancy Celebrating 35th with World Class Musical Lineup Moved to June 10th

NYC Parks Department, Riverside Park, Riverside Park Conservancy, Upper West Side

Re: Growth, artist Dewitt Godfrey, curator Karin Bravin ~ Riverside Park Conservancy

Riverside Park Conservancy announced a free, world-class musical lineup to help celebrate the organization’s 35th Anniversary on Thursday, June 10th from 6-9pm.

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Art On The Corner to Fill Vacant Upper West Side Storefront

Upper West Side

2780 Broadway, corner of 107th Street. Image courtesy of Art On The Corner

An exhibition of 24 paintings, photographs, and other artworks that reflect and celebrate the Upper West Side will open on June 5th, filing the windows of 2780 Broadway. The temporary gallery, prominently located at the corner of 107th Street, was formerly home to Bank Street Bookstore.

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Celebrating Riverside Park Conservancy’s 35th Anniversary with RE: GROWTH, a Summer-Long, Outdoor Art Exhibition

Riverside Park, Upper West Side

Artist, Wendy Letven ‘Four Currents’ for RE: GROWTH. Image courtesy Riverside Park Conservancy

Riverside Park Conservancy will be celebrating its 35th Anniversary, and slow emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic, by hosting a summer-long art exhibition throughout the Park entitled, RE: GROWTH, a Celebration of Art, Riverside Park, and the New York Spirit.

“To offer hope and joy through the use of festive shapes and colors is my gift for a city that has lost too much during the pandemic.” –Blanka Amezkua

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Art on the Ave: The Art of Healing ~ Take a Stroll on the Upper West Side

Art on the Ave, Art Stroll, Upper West Side

3k by Adrian Hashimi. Image courtesy xgallery.nyc

Art on the Ave has been working with local property owners and businesses on the Upper West Side, filling empty windows with works created by local artists. Not only has the project beautified spaces, it also has been an opportunity for for all to enjoy a socially distanced gallery walk using digital and printable maps.

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Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine coming to the New York Historical Society Garden this Summer

COVID-19, New York Historical Society, Upper West Side

Hope Wanted installation. Photo credit: Kay Hickman

Many of our beloved Museum’s, which have been closed for several months due to COVID-19, have risen to difficult challenges with free online viewing rooms, artist talks, workshops and educational experiences. The New York Historical Society will open its rear courtyard this summer to a COVID-19-related installation entitled, Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine.

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Nicolas Holiber: Birds on Broadway ~ Audubon Sculpture Project NYC

Broadway Malls, by AFineLyne, Upper West Side

The National Audubon Society, Gitler &___ , New York City Parks Department, NYC Audubon and the Broadway Mall Association have a very special installation scheduled for May 17, 2019. Ten sculptures in reclaimed wood to call attention to New York City’s climate threatened birds.

We’ve been following the project from its inception at Gitler & __, and below is a sneak-peek of Nicolas Holiber: Birds on Broadway, Audubon Sculpture Project, with sculptures to be installed from 67th Street to 168th Street ~ and the Kickstarter Campaign that helped to make this happen. The birds have arrived! Let’s do some #birdwatching.

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Folk Art on the Broadway Malls ~ Project Installation beings on October 12th

Art Installation, Upper West Side

Rendering via Lincoln Square’s Broadway Mall Public Art Project

The Lincoln Square BID and American Folk Art Museum are partnering to create a new public art project on the Broadway Mall between 60th and 70th Streets. The painting will take place on Friday, October 12th from 9:30am to 5:00pm, when they will be working with New York Cares volunteers.

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Imagine ~ if Yoko Ono did an MTA Art Mural on 72nd Street & Central Park West

Art in the Subways, MTA Arts & Design, Upper West Side

……..And imagine if Yoko Ono created this mural in a subway station adjacent to The Dakota, where she shared her life with husband John Lennon from 1973 until his death, and where she still lives today.

The 72nd Street B/C Subway Station, undergoing a major renovation, just reopened with six mosaic panels spread throughout the station from 70th Street to 72nd Street, created by Yoko Ono.

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North of History Presents Francie Bishop Good’s Exhibition ~ Comus

Art Exhibit, Upper West Side

Artist Francie Bishop Good’s exhibition ‘Comus’ at North of History

Next up at North of History, the artist Francie Bishop Good with her solo exhibition entitled Comus.

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‘Feminine Constructs’ opens at North of History

Art Exhibit, Upper West Side

Feminine Constructs, works by Lizzy Lunday and Maura Martin depict female identity and sexuality in America in a new exhibit opening on June 28th at North of History.

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“Appearances and Disappearances” @ North of History

Photography, Upper West Side

The gallery, North of History, opened its doors this month to the photographic exhibit, “Appearances and Disappearances,” featuring works by Sanaz Mazinani and Rola Khayyat.

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North of History ~ Andrew Freedman Home heads to Upper West Side

Art Exhibit, Upper West Side

“Ravages” by Nicky Enright

Andrew Freedman Home will head to the Upper West Side, with a new art exhibition featuring artists from the AFH Collective at a new space ~ North of History.

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The Vietnam War: 1945-1975 on View at New York Historical Society

Art Exhibit, Museums, Upper West Side

All images via New York Historical Society

In a new exhibition, the New York Historical Society takes a deep-dive into the causes, progression, and consequences of the Vietnam War. Currently on view, The Vietnam War: 1945-1975 displays more than 300 artifacts, photographs, artworks, documents, films, and interactive digital media from a time in American history that transformed society.

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