Chillin’ with Lady Liberty, Renee Cox, 1998. Courtesy Renee Cox
The Park Avenue Armory has joined forces with National Black Theatre to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the 19th amendment in a big way.
The organizations have tapped ten major institutions—The Apollo Theater; TheJuilliardSchool; La MaMa Experimental Theatre Company; The Laundromat Project; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of the Moving Image; National Sawdust; New York University(Department of Photography and Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts; Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity and Strategic Innovation; and Institute of African American Affairs & Center for Black Visual Culture); and Urban Bush Women—to each commission 10 self-identified women to create works to mark the centennial of women’s suffrage.
Included in a vibrant new season of events, Harlem Stage announced a sumptuous list of Free Events for 2020! We’ve listed them below, but don’t wait too long since tickets can go quickly.
Also below, a link to the exciting Harlem Stage 2020 entire calendar of events.
Judith Schaecter, ‘Murdered Animal, 2018, stained glass lightbox, 28″ x 28″, courtesy of the artist and Claire Oliver Gallery
The much anticipated inaugural exhibition in its new Harlem building, Claire Oliver Gallery will open its doors to Almost Better Angels featuring new works by Judith Schaechter on Saturday, January 18th.
View of The Winter Show 2019. Courtesy The Winter Show. Photo by Matthew Gilbertson.
The Winter Show returns to the Park Avenue Armory from January 24 through February 2, 2020 for its 66th year, bringing together 72 of the world’s leading experts in the fine and decorative arts. The 2020 edition features a range of exhibitors, including new, returning, and longtime participants, whose offerings span 5,000 years of museum-quality art and antiques from around the globe. The Winter Show is an annual benefit for East Side House Settlement, a community-based organization serving the Bronx and northern Manhattan.
Rendering of the restoration of the Concert Grove Pavilion courtesy Prospect Park Alliance
Through $2 million in funding by former Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and the Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council, the Prospect Park Alliance will restore the historic Concert Grove Pavilion, closed to the public in 2014 due to structural damage.
Marcus Garvey Park, formerly Mt. Morris Park. Image taken April, 2009. Image courtesy NYC Parks
In anticipation and celebration of Black History Month in February, NYC Parks is pleased to announce the exhibition “Namesakes: Honoring African Americans in NYC Parks” at the Arsenal Gallery in Central Park. The show focuses on a selection of parks throughout the city that are named after notable African Americans.
Photo: Process image from “Collages” by Rayyane Tabet. Created for Arabesque, an exhibition organized by Storefront for Art and Architecture, 2020.
Storefront for Art + Architecture will open its doors to Arabesque, an exhibition of new works by Rayyane Tablet that explores notions of context and appropriation in our built environment through the road of ornamentation. Arabesque is the third exhibition in Building Cycles, Storefront’s year-long curatorial program that examines building as both a place and a process. Focused on decoration and ornamentation, this exhibition questions existing and historical modes of practice by examining the notions of context and appropriation in our built environment. Arabesque follows the first two exhibitions in the cycle, Aquí vive gente and Ministry for All.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will host its Eighth Annual Black Comic Book Festival on January 17 and January 18 from 10 AM to 8 PM. Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, member of the legendary hip hop group Run-DMC and founder of the independent publishing house Darryl Makes Comics, will participate in the panel discussion “Hip Hop and Comics in 3D” with Andre Davis and Dawud Anyabwile on January 18 at 2 PM.
James Guy (1909-1983), Capital Minus Labor, 1938. Oil on canvas board, 14 x 18 in. Courtesy Hirschl & Adler Gallery.
Art Dealers Association of America’s (ADAA) Annual Fair to Benefit Henry Street Settlement Will take places from February 27 through March 1, 2020, featuring more than 40 Solo presentations, an emphasis on female artists, and dynamic group presentations spanning art history + ADAA Gallery Walk Midtown & Upper Ease Side.
Ride my seesaw. Photo by Scogin Mayo, courtesy of the Dallas Arts District in May, 2019
The Garment District Alliance has kicked-off the New Year with Impulse, an interactive installation comprised of 12 over-sized seesaws that will transform Broadway in the Garment District into a gleaming winter wonderland on Monday, January 6th.
Photo credit: Countdown Entertainment, LLC via timessquarenyc.org
At New Year’s Eve 2020, two award-winning NYC high school science teachers and four students — all from New York City’s public schools — will push the crystal button on the main stage in the center of Times Square, signaling the lowering of the Waterford Crystal Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball. Viewed by billions around the world, this moment officially begins the 60-second countdown to the New Year and is historically seen as a celebration as the human spirit.
Wayne White: Finally Got There Wasn’t So Great, Acrylic on canvas, 2019, 36 x 48 in. Image via Joshua Liner Gallery
Joshua Liner Gallery will open its doors to artist, Wayne White’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery, I DON’T KNOW. The Los Angeles-based artist will present new text-based paintings that feature hand painted backgrounds, as well as laser cut word reliefs, and an oversized kinetic puppet. I DON’T KNOW will open on January 9 and remain on view through February 8, 2020. The artist will attend the opening reception.
We are sorry to lean that this will be the final exhibition for the Joshua Liner Gallery at the 28th Street location.
The 28th Annual New York Edition of the Outsider Air Fair will take place from January 16-19 at the Metropolitan Pavilion. New features this year include a redesigned floor plan and revamped cafe’, various curated projects, special programs, and first-time exhibitors from Japan, India, Portugal, Canada and various U.S. cities. The Fair will include 65 exhibitors, representing 35 cities, from 10 countries, with 10 first-time galleries.
Photo credits: The Central Park Conservancy developed this program of interpretative signage based on research conducted by the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History (IESVH), with additional research and content development by the Conservancy and Hunter Research, Inc. Project management by Hunter Research, Inc. and graphic design by Douglas Scott. Sign fabrication by Pannier Graphics. The IESVH includes Cynthia Copeland, Paul Johnson, Celedonia Jones, Meredith Linn, Nan Rothschild, Herbert Seignoret, Diana diZerega Wall, and Sharon Wilkins.
The Central Park Conservancy launched its first major interpretive signage initiative in Central Park to commemorate Seneca Village, a predominantly African American community that existed before the City of New York created Central Park. The interpretive signs build on decades of research, including the work of the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History (IESVH) — a group of scholars and archeologists who have been studying Seneca Village — as well as the Conservancy’s deep knowledge of the history of Central Park and long involvement in the study of Seneca Village.
Built in 1845, the historic pair of townhouses, 14-15 Gramercy Park South, was home to Samuel J. Tilden, former governor of New York. who lived there until his death in 1886. Calvert Vaux, who became its next owner, combined the two row houses, creating the building that stands now ~ and has been home to The National Arts Club since 1906.
Each year, thousands flock to Times Square for the annual New Years Eve Confetti + Ball Drop. Each piece of falling confetti is a hope and a wish for the new year ahead, written by thousands of people on the NYE Wishing Wall.
Costantino Nivola at work, preparing for a sand-casting. Photographer and date unknown. Courtesy of the Nivola Family Archive.
New York is home to the largest gathering of Nivola’s public artworks — 21 pieces across all five boroughs, at least 17 of which still exist. So it is with great excitement and anticipation that we look forward to the opening of The Cooper Union’s next exhibition, Nivola in New YorkIFigure in Field ~ the first-ever to tell the story of Nivola’s built New York City projects through maquette and sculptures, original drawings, site-specific photographs, and related ephemera.
Brainwave Impermanence via The Rubin Museum of Art
You live inside your head, but do you understand how it works? Brainwave investigates how our minds shape our everyday experiences with onstage conversations and immersive experiences that combine the most compelling advancements in science with traditional Himalayan wisdom.
The Rubin Museum of Art’s annual Brainwave series returns in January to explore the connections between the Buddhist idea of impermanence, or that everything changes, and cutting-edge research in neuroplasticity. Featuring unscripted onstage conversations and experiences that engage the head and heart, each Brainwave program investigates how our minds shape our everyday experiences by combining the most compelling advancements in science with traditional Himalayan wisdom. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 11am on January 9th.
The Shed’s Bloomberg Building, April 2019. Photo: Iwan Baan. Project Design Credit: Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lead Architect, and Rockwell Group, Collaborating Architect
Kick-off the New Year with the first-ever Open House, Meet at The Shedon January 11th, celebrating its opening season as it draws to a close. Meet at The Shed will feature special pop-up events and free admission to its current exhibitions.
After a popular inaugural year screening indie and classic films and hosting special events from the St. George Theatre to Tappen Park, Cinema Connex, Staten Island’s free independent film series, returns! This season’s lineup includes Roma, Woman On Fire and a film program curated by the African Film Festival.
NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP, today joined Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, U.S. Congresswoman Grace Meng, New York State Senator Joseph Addabbo, New York State Assembly Member Brian Barnwell, New York City Council Member Peter Koo, New York City Council Member Daniel Dromm, New York City Council Member Robert Holden, National President of the Vietnam Veterans of America John Rowan, and Community Board 4 Parks Chair Gregory Spock to officially cut the ribbon on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Elmhurst Park.
The memorial, which was fully funded by Borough President Katz, was originally conceptualized by the members of Vietnam Veterans of America local Chapter 32, led by Queens resident Pastor “Pat” Toro who lost his life after returning home. The creation of the memorial would not have been possible without his advocacy.
Image: Installation view of The Great Hall Commission: Kent Monkman, mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People), 2019. Courtesy of the artist. Image credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo by Anna-Marie Kellen
This well-established, family-owned bakery, Zaro’s, first opened its doors in 1927, shortly after arriving from Eastern Europe, through Ellis Island. In the 1950s, the next generation expanded the business, and in 1977, opened the first of its four Grand Central Station shops ~ then Penn Station, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, with a total of 11 ~ until last week when they opened their doors along 125th Street in East Harlem.
El Museo Del Barrio Presents The 43rd Annual Three Kings Day Parade which will be held on Monday, January 6, 2020. The Parade, entitled Nuestros Barrios Unidos: Celebrating our Collective Strength, will celebrate immigrant and migrant communities of past and present that continue to keep history alive by celebrating the cultural traditions of El Barrio and beyond. Grand Marshall will be Marco Saavedra, Immigrant Rights Activist and Member of “The Dream 9”.
Behind the Cathedral is the Greek Revival building ~ Textile Conservation Lab
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine received a donation of twelve 17th Century Italian Barberini tapestries in 1891, a year before construction began on the Cathedral itself. In time, the acquisition of a collection of Raphael designed tapestries depicting scenes of the Acts of the Apostles drawn from the New Testament Book of Acts, and nine Mortlake tapestries were acquired. So it should not be surprising that, in 1981, a textile conservation lab was established, by the Cathedral, as a way to care and conserve the collection.
August 17, 2019 in front of Madison Avenue Headquarters, with a view north toward 125th Street and Promise Academy in the background on the left
Jermaine Grant, leader of the East Harlem-based Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, and the organization’s treasurer, Lincoln Warrington, were sentenced to prison on tax fraud scheme on Tuesday, January 28, 2020. Grant received an 18-month sentence, and Warrington was sentenced to a year.
Below, a bit of recent history on this group, known as Black Hebrew Israelites.
The viral video taken on January 18, 2019, on the day of the Pro-Life March in Washington D.C., brought attention to a little-known group ~ The Black Hebrew Israelites, who were involved in the initial confrontation that day. From the language used in the video, it appeared that the five Black Hebrew Israelites in the video were part of a division of that group called Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge (ISUPK), known to demonstrate at the corner of Seventh and H Streets in Washington D.C. This group, headquartered in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, occasionally makes an appearance in Harlem, staging themselves in front of CVS Pharmacy on the corner of Lenox Avenue and 125th Street, megaphone in hand, spewing their hateful rhetoric, and most recently on the opposite side of Lenox Avenue, between 124th-125th Streets.
Manhattan College and the EVAC Project (Experiencing Veterans & Artists Collaboration), with support from the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership and GFP Real Estate, opened a new pop-up gallery of portraits honoring veterans from multiple generations and all branches of service, on the ground-floor of New York City’s famed Flatiron Building (949 Broadway) on Sunday, November 10.
The Riverside Church invites the public to step inside the tallest steeple in North America and see New York City like never before with a Steeple Tour!
IMAGES: Annina Roescheisen, Stills from Bridging Grey, 2019
Ki Smith Gallery will open its doors to Bridging Grey, a new video and performance installation by German artist Annina Roescheisen. Her readings of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe are the basis for this new body of work. In the mid-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, these philosophers began to investigate the aesthetics of color. Roescheisen has been most influenced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose intuitive approach linked the colors we see to the emotion and mood we feel in their presence. In his Theory of Colours, Goethe writes about painting, “From these three, light, shade, and colour, we construct the visible world, and thus, at the same time, make painting possible, an art which has the power of producing on a flat surface a much more perfect visible world than the actual one can be.”
NYC Parks today announced changes to its annual Mulchfest. During the 2020 recycling program, New Yorkers will now have two consecutive Saturdays when they can actively mulch their holiday trees—Saturday, January 4 and 11. This new schedule makes it easier than ever for all to say goodbye to their trees in an ecofriendly way, and take a bag of nutrient rich mulch home in the process. Mulchfest, part of the New York City’s holiday tradition, encourages New Yorkers to make greening a family activity—turning holiday trees into mulch which can be used for gardening and to increase soil fertility.
Buildings of Tin Pan Alley, c. 1910. Image via Historic Districts Council
On Sunday, October 22, 2017, preservationists and historians rallied to protect the cultural treasure known as Tin Pan Alley along 28th Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue ~ with musical performances and a tour. It was a day to learn about the rich history of the historic one block, known asTin Pan Alley, and the efforts to preserve its heritage, along with many of its 19th-century structures still in tact.
On Tuesday, December 10, 2019, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated five historic buildings on West 28th Street in Manhattan: 47 West 28th Street, 49 West 28th Street, 51 West 28th Street, 53 West 28th Street and 55 West 28th Street. These buildings are an intact part of a block known as Tin Pan Alley, home of the most significant concentration of sheet music publishers in New York City. While on this block — so named to describe the audible racket of piano music that made 28th St. sound “like a tin pan alley” — these firms revolutionized the music-publishing industry’s practices for the creation, promotion and consumption of popular music as we know it today.
John Howard Sanden. Image courtesy The Salmagundi Club
In the summer of 2003, the Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, Massachusetts opened its doors to an exhibition of Rockwell’s works produced during the time the artist lived in Arlington, Vermont. Among the works was the painting entitled, Breaking Home Ties. But standing before it, the artist and museum patron, John Howard Sanden had an overwhelming feeling that this was not at all the original ~ it was a reproduction (a fake!)
The landmarked 120 Broadway, also know as the Equitable Building, has undergone a two-year, $50 million renovation. We were pleased to be invited to take a look inside, from the historic Banker’s Club space on the 40th floor to the newly created mural project on the third floor, and beautifully restored lobby. Come along, as we take in the new, while reflecting on the old.
Tis the season for indoor artistic treks, from galleries to museum, and gorgeous holiday displays in a variety of public spaces throughout our five boroughs. Here are Art Installations, Events & Exhibits to add to your list in December, with more than 50 still on view!
On Saturday, November 30th, Ki Smith Gallery will open its doors to a celebration of the extraordinary life of acclaimed documentary and street photographer Jill Freedman (1939-2019).
From L-R, Sargent, Zorn, Sorolla. Image courtesy The Salmagundi Club
The historic Salmagundi Club in Greenwich Village will open its doors to a lecture by artist/member Neill Slaughter entitled, A Triumphant Triad: Sargent, Sorolla and Zornon Wednesday, January 8, 2020 at 6:00pm
Hidden deep within Central Park, in a secluded place, stands a perfectly situated tree, dressed up for the Holiday’s every year ~ the ornaments all dedicated to beloved pets who have passed on ~ but as we see each year, are never forgotten.
Walk with us as we hit the less-traveled paths in search of the Memorial Pet Tree in Central Park from years past.
With New York City real estate at such a premium, it is hard to image how short a life the single-story structure has these days. And even harder to imagine how many still exist throughout our five boroughs.
In 2015, photographer and long-time East Village resident Adam Friedberg decided to explore all the single-story buildings in the East Village and the Lower East Side. To date, he has documented in photographs nearly 100 sites. Many of these images are now on view in his exhibition, Single-Story Project, at the Center for Architecture. Walk with us down to the lower-level and take a look.
Laurence Miller Gallery will open its doors to the New York City debut of John Dowell’s COTTON: Symbol of the Forgotten. In this timely exhibition, Dowell blends a unique mixture of spiritualism, historical awareness, racial angst and deft technique to create photographic works that inspire the viewer to recognize the injustices imposed upon the black community, especially in New York, over the past 400 years.
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.
Leenda Bonilla + Luis Pagan, ‘Un Cafecito del Pueblo’, Foil coffee packages, artificial berries, pinecone
New York City Park announced the dates for the 37th Annual Wreath Interpretations Exhibition, bringing in the Holiday Season with an array of imaginative and unusual wreaths.
Today, the iconic nonprofit Apollo Theaterannounced details of its spring 2020 season featuring genre-spanning performances—from music, dance, and theater to comedy and film screenings—that continue the theater’s strong mission of articulating African American narratives through cultural programming. Season highlights include the Apollo’s Africa Now! and African Film Festival 30th Anniversary Celebration presenting the legendary Oumou Sangaré; Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber performing Isaac Hayes’ Academy Award-winning score Shaft, alongside a screening of the film; the Apollo Salon Series presentation of A Time to Love, a musical theater collaboration with National Black Theatre; and the signature series that brings patrons to the Apollo year-round, Amateur Night at the Apollo, Apollo Music Café, andApollo Comedy Club.Through its programming, educational, and community initiatives, the Apollo continues to advance its commitment to creating a 21st century performing arts canon, providing a home to artists and the community, while tackling important social issues for Harlem, New York, and the nation.
Here it is ~ The exciting Apollo Theater 2020 Spring Season.
Top L-R, Artist, Shirlee Cunningham, ‘Golden Moon Tea Ceremony; Artist, Shirlee Cunningham, ‘Tangerines After Peale. Bottom L-R: Artist, Shirlee Cunningham, ‘Sepia Rembrandt Tulip’, Artist, Sharon Way-Howard, ‘Tiny Toy Mixer’
The annual Thumb Box Exhibition and Sale at the Salmagundi Club in Greenwich Village is one of the most anticipated exhibitions of the year, with over 500 works of art in all media, held in two galleries. With prices beginning in the $100’s, it is also an opportunity to purchase a one-of-a-kind holiday gift.
(L-R) Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, artist Leonardo Drew, public art historian Dr. Michele Bogart; Director of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art Program, Kendal Henry
What invigorates public art today and how do we value it? These are the questions that will be explored in the context of very real, current threats to governmental and public funding for art in our time with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney in a salon conversation with artist Leonardo Drew, public art historian Dr. Michele Bogart, and Director of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art Program, Kendal Henry, to be held in the Nevelson Chapel at Saint Peter’s Church on Monday, December 16, 2019.
The Opioid Spoon Project at Mountainside Chelsea, 243 West 18th Street, NYC
There’s a lot to see and do in Chelsea this month from Kusama at David Zwirner to Mike Kelley and Rashid Johnson at Hauser & Wirth, Banksy at Taglialatella Galleries, and on & on. But the installation located at 243 West 18th Street stopped us in our tracks. It is entitled The Opioid Spoon, created by artist Domenic Esposito as part of his Opioid Spoon Project, focusing on the opioid epidemic throughout our Country.
Unveiling of Dr. Sun Yat-sen statue in Columbus Park. Image credit: Daniel Avila/NYC Park
On the anniversary of the 153 birthday of Dr. Sun Yat-sen ~ founder of the Republic of China ~ a permanent sculpture depicting the early 20th-century revolutionary figure was placed in the northern plaza at Columbus Park in Chinatown.
Zilia Sánchez, Lunar con tatuaje (Moon with Tattoo), c. 1968/96. Acrylic on stretched canvas, 71 x 72 x 12 in., Collection of theartist, Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co., New York
Zilia Sánchez: Soy Isla (I Am an Island) is the first museum retrospective of the prolific, innovative, and yet largely unknown artist Zilia Sánchez (b. 1926, Havana – lives and works in San Juan). The exhibition features over 40 works from the early 1950s to the present, including paintings, works on paper, shaped canvases, sculptural pieces, graphic illustrations, and ephemera.
In keeping with the history of The Battery as the home to the first New York Aquarium, The Battery Conservancy included a design for an aquatic carousel when designing the park’s interior. It opened to the public on August 20, 2015. Let’s take a ride.
With the unveiling of the recently restored Harlem Fire Watchtower, and renovation of the Acropolis on which it sits, we take a look back at a Marcus Garvey Park art installation in 2015, Caesura: a forum ~ a large-scale architectural and sound installation we frequented, but find our original post unretrievable ~ and worth a re-post.
