History

Summary

Get a rare glimpse of restoration happening live as we preserve one of the most significant items in the Museum’s collection: Samuel Bell Waugh’s massive painting "The Bay and Harbor of New York."

Seasonal Opening Date

Featured Image Credit

Samuel Bell Waugh, The Bay and Harbor of New York, c. 1855, Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Mrs. Robert M. Littlejohn, 33.169.1

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Shirley Chisholm Thumbnail

Activist New York Category

Immigration

Changing the Face of Democracy

tdawson — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 15:53:41 +0000

Changing the Face of Democracy tdawson Tue, 11/28/2023 - 10:53

Shirley Chisholm at 100

To commemorate the centennial of the birth of Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005), the Museum of the City of New York and the Shirley Chisholm Project at Brooklyn College will present the first major museum exhibition on the life and legacy of this pathbreaking politician and New Yorker.

The first Black woman elected to Congress and the first woman to run for president on a major party ticket, Chisholm emerged from a unique constellation of New York networks. Set against the broader landscape of New York politics, Caribbean communities, and Black women’s activism, this exhibition explores Shirley Chisholm’s life, from her early years in Brooklyn and Barbados to her lasting impact on U.S. politics. Follow Chisholm’s political career from her 1964 election to the New York State legislature, her 1968 election to Congress, and 1972 run for President, and explore the still-relevant issues she worked on, including education and childcare, rights for migrants and workers, abortion access, and racial and gender equality.

With the 2024 election cycle in mind, learn about Chisholm in her own words and through an array of historical artifacts, art, photographs, and video; glimpse into her life through hands-on interactives; and reflect on Chisholm as both an inspirational figure to subsequent generations and a changemaker whose work remains unfinished.

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Start Date

Fri, 06/14/2024 - 12:00

Exhibition Category

Activist New York

Sponsor(s)

Supporters

Changing the Face of Democracy: Shirley Chisholm at 100 is made possible in part by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Dobkin Family Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, Ltd., The Barbara Lee Family Foundation Fund at Fidelity Charitable, and an Anonymous Family Foundation.

Summary

Explore the life and legacy of barrier-breaking Brooklyn-born politician Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to US Congress.

Seasonal Opening Date

Featured Image Credit

Thomas J. O’Halloran, “Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm announcing her candidacy for the presidential nomination Cong. Chisholm, Cong. Charles B. Rangel, Cong. Parren Mitchell, Cong. Bella Abzug,” January 25, 1972, Library of Congress, LC-U9-25384- 7B, http

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People, Place, and Influence

mmclaughlin — Tue, 23 May 2023 20:58:09 +0000

People, Place, and Influence mmclaughlin Tue, 05/23/2023 - 16:58

Explore the Collection

Collections Portal

Explore New York’s past through nearly 205,000 objects from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Urban Archive

Calling all Urban Explorers! Dive into the stories of New York City beyond the Museum any time, any where on Urban Archive.

Google Arts and Culture

Alongside content from over 2000 Museums around the world, you can find new ways to explore the Museum of the City of New York's collection and stories through Google Arts and Culture.

Curatorial Credits

Curatorial:
Lilly Tuttle, Curator
Susan Gail Johnson, Contributing Curator

Tracy McFarlan, Associate Director of Curatorial Projects
Elizabeth Indek, Curatorial Projects Associate

Gabriela Senno, Curatorial Projects Administrative Assistant

Special thanks to Phyllis Magidson, William D. Degregorio, and Kathleen Benson Haskins

Design:
Marissa Martonyi, Design Director
Olivia de Salve Villedieu

Philip Poon
Joanna Vergas
Ian Keliher

Collections:
Leela Outcalt, Director of Collections
Sheryl McMahan, Registrar
Riley McBride, Assistant Registrar
Elizabeth Randolph, Collections Manager for Costume and Textiles
Christina Chavez, Associate Collections Manager
Gavin Robinson, Associate Collections Manager
Joseph Patzner, Institutional Archivist
David Lurvey, Digital Imaging Specialist

Framing and Mounting:
Kate McKenzie
Object Mounts

Art Handling:
Kels Lyn
Mike Piergrossi
Alexandra Theodoropoulos

Fabrication, and Installation:
Todd Ludlam, Director of Exhibitions Installation
Nancy Nicholson, Manager of Exhibition Installation
Julius Erwin Quito, Director of Information Technology
Jake LaMalfa, Manager of Information Technology

Fabrication by LM Communal Objects, Inc.
Gallery Preparation and Painting by Williams Brothers
Lighting Design and Installation by Technical Artistry
AV Editing by Thane Lund

Gallery Guide Printing Linco Printing

Reproduction and Graphics Printing and Installation:
Full Point Graphics
Creative Graphic Services

The Collection at 100

In 1923 the Museum of the City of New York was founded “in response to an almost universal longing among our people, for some place in which to preserve the annals and records of their own hometown.” In the intervening 100 years the Museum has grown a collection that encompasses over 750,000 items: a catalog of objects as rich and eclectic as the city itself.

As a city museum, the founding mandate was to tell the story of a place and its people. Not an art museum or an antiquarian society, the city’s museum would strive to capture the looks and lives of New Yorkers and their physical city; a set of topics under scrutiny and debate in the 1920s, as Fifth Avenue mansions gave way to apartment houses and decades of record immigration transformed the demographics of the city.

The Collection at 100 delves into the founding mission for the Museum by highlighting key aspects of this unique collection. Through four key sections, the exhibition centers around the collection’s strengths in capturing New York as a place, a population, a platform for creativity, and a center for influence. With unexpected juxtapositions of medium and time periods, the objects on view spotlight singular moments in New York history, notable creative voices and urban icons, and the extraordinary stories embedded within the Museum’s collection. Featuring objects ranging from Tiffany jewelry to a seat from Yankee Stadium; a Duncan Phyfe chair and a prop from Cats; a Christmas card from Zelda Fitzgerald; and a stickball bat—the exhibition is a journey through the singular qualities of the city that the Museum’s founders sought to capture through the collection.

While the exhibition is an opportunity to showcase the rich, distinctive, and in some cases, previously unseen aspects of the collection, visitors are invited to brainstorm future goals and directions for collecting, as the Museum moves into its second century.

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Start Date

Fri, 10/13/2023 - 12:00

End Date

Sun, 04/21/2024 - 12:00

Exhibition Category

Sponsor(s)

Supporters

People, Place, and Influence: The Collection at 100 is made possible in part by Mrs. William T. Comfort, the Havemeyer Family, Stanford and Sandra Ladner, Leon Levy Foundation, and Daryl B. Uber.

Summary

Delve into the founding mission for the Museum by highlighting key aspects of this unique collection.

Seasonal Opening Date

Last Chance!

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Learn more about the team behind the exhibition.

This Is New York

mmclaughlin — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 18:45:44 +0000

This Is New York mmclaughlin Fri, 12/16/2022 - 13:45

Programs for This Is New York

Series Tuesday, April 06, 2021 - Wednesday, May 29, 2024

New York on Film

Our series of monthly film screenings, complete with themed happy hours and special introductions!

Event Monday, June 5, 6:30pm

An Evening with John Turturro

Join actor and director John Turturro, creator of many unforgettable New York characters and stories, for an evening of conversation with WNYC's Alison Stewart.

Event Thursday, June 15, 6:30pm

Past Event: New York on Film: Manhandled (1924)

Join us for a screening of Manhandled (1924) starring Gloria Swanson, with a live score by DJ Misbehaviour.

Event Thursday, July 13, 7:30pm

Past Event: New York on Film: Gold Diggers of 1933

Join us for an outdoor screening of Gold Diggers of 1933, introduced by series programmer Jessica Green.

Event Thursday, August 10, 7:00pm

New York on Film: The Clock

Join us for a screening of The Clock (Vincente Minelli, 1945), introduced by Jourdain Searles

Event Thursday, September 21, 6:45pm

New York on Film: The World, the Flesh and the Devil

Join us for a screening of The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (1959) introduced by activist Carmen Perez-Jordan

Curatorial Credits

This Is New York was curated by Sarah M. Henry, Monxo López, Frances A. Rosenfeld, and Lilly Tuttle, with support from Naomi Fischer, Centennial Research Fellow.

“You Are Here” was created by RadicalMedia. Curatorial committee: Bruce Goldstein, Jessica Green, Carlos Gutiérrez, Richard Koszarski, Melissa Lyde, Lucy J. Mukerjee, Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Jacob Perlin, and JT Takagi.

“Scenes from the City” was curated by James Sanders Studio.

100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture

In honor of the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Museum of the City of New York as the city’s storyteller, This Is New York: 100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture explores the many ways that the city has inspired storytelling across art forms. It features both famous and lesser-known depictions of New York in film and television, visual and performing arts, music, poetry and literature, and even fashion, painting a collective, moving, and sometimes funny version of a city that has captured the imagination of the world.

The full-floor exhibition is organized around the types of urban spaces where the stories of New York are told. “Tempo of the City” explores the ways in which artists have depicted life in the city’s streets and subways, and the emotions that the experience of joining the public crowd often evoke, whether joy or alienation, fear or pride. The gallery also features “Songs of New York,” an interactive installation that allows visitors to explore the richness and diversity of each borough through songs it has inspired. In the Tiffany & Co. Foundation Gallery, “At Home in New York” spotlights literature and art works that animate the unique challenges and opportunities of making a home in a city of eight million people. The third gallery, “Destination: NYC," showcases work about the city’s spaces for gathering and spectacle, its dynamic unique nightlife spots, as well as its iconic parks and waterfronts.

A special gallery, “You Are Here,” dedicated to New York on film, provides an immersive 16-screen experience drawn from hundreds of movies about the city made over the past century. The film immersive also includes an introductory installation, “Scenes from the City” which explores how New York has been used as a movie set for the past century.

More About "You Are Here"

“You Are Here” draws on the rich archive of movies set in New York, combining thousands of cinematic moments across 16 screens. Sources include Hollywood blockbusters, independent films, documentaries, and experimental works. By juxtaposing these multiple visions, the dazzling montages of “You Are Here” make connections and contrasts that allow movies to comment on each other across time and space. Together, they shed new light on the varied New Yorks of our collective imagination.

Watch the Official Trailer for 'You Are Here' Below:

Hashtag

ThisIsNewYork

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Richard Estes. M Train on Route to Manhattan Approaches the Williamsburg Bridge. 1995.

Start Date

Fri, 05/26/2023 - 12:00

End Date

Sun, 07/21/2024 - 12:00

Exhibition Category

Photography

Sponsor(s)

Exhibition Supporters

This Is New York: 100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture is made possible with lead support from The Thompson Family Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, Elizabeth R. Miller and James G. Dinan, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Heather and William Vrattos, Todd DeGarmo, Judith Smorto Revocable Trust, and Michael T. Sillerman Revocable Trust. Additional support provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Theodore W. Scull, The David Berg Foundation, New York Life, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, Nancy and James Buckman, David Guin and Kym McClain, Gurudatta and Margaret Nadkarni, and other generous donors.

This exhibition is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

Summary

In honor of the Museum’s centennial, this exhibition, which spans a full city block, is organized around the types of urban spaces where the stories of New York are told.

Acknowledgements

Support of our Centennial year exhibitions, programs, and activities provided by:

$1,000,000 and Above:

An Anonymous Family Foundation
Charina Endowment Fund
Elizabeth R. Miller and James G. Dinan
Robert A. and Elizabeth Rohn Jeffe
Valerie and John W. Rowe
The Thompson Family Foundation
Heather and William Vrattos

$250,000 to $999,999:

Bloomberg Philanthropies
Todd DeGarmo
Diana King Memorial Fund
Leon Levy Foundation
Polly and Newton P.S. Merrill

$100,000 to $249,999:

MacMillan Family Foundation
National Endowment for the Humanities
New York Life
Tracey and Kenneth A. Pontarelli
The Puffin Foundation, Ltd.
Michael T. Sillerman Revocable Trust
Judith Smorto Revocable Trust
Daryl B. Uber

$50,000 to $99,999:

Altman Foundation
Lily Auchincloss Foundation
Con Edison
Leslie and Mark Godridge
Mark Scott
Theodore W. Scull
Martha and Alex Wallau

$25,000 to $49,999:

The David Berg Foundation
Mrs. William T. Comfort
John and Patricia Heller
Rosita Sarnoff and Beth Sapery

$10,000 to $24,999:

Nancy and James Buckman
Lorna and Edwin Goodman
David Guin and Kym McClain
The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation
Gurudatta and Margaret Nadkarni

$2,500 to $9,999:

O’Connell Family Fund

As of 05/01/2023

Seasonal Opening Date

Featured Image Credit

Richard Estes. M Train on Route to Manhattan Approaches the Williamsburg Bridge. 1995. Copyright Richard Estes, Courtesy of Louis K. Meisel Gallery

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Analog City

cmiyajima — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 20:43:47 +0000

Analog City cmiyajima Mon, 02/07/2022 - 15:43

NYC B.C. (Before Computers)

Analog City: NYC B.C. (Before Computers) uncovers the array of tools, technologies, and lost professions that supported New York City as it exploded into a global metropolis in the pre-digital era. Focusing on the period between the 1870s and the 1970s, Analog City examines the technologies that enabled the city to reach its position as the “capital of the world” in an age before the speed and capacity of today’s digital technologies. Set against a contemporary backdrop of 24-hour news cycles and high-speed trading—in which questions about privacy, truth, and the impact of social media are increasingly pressing—the exhibition uncovers this bygone era of paper files and pneumatic tubes, of note cards and telephone directories, and examines how New York thrived as a center of finance, news, research, and real estate in an era before personal computers and the internet.

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Start Date

Fri, 05/20/2022 - 12:00

End Date

Sun, 01/08/2023 - 12:00

Exhibition Category

Behind the Scenes @ The New York Times

Related Events

Past Event: Moonlight & Movies | Desk Set

Sponsor(s)

Supporters

Analog City is made possible in part by Elizabeth R. Miller and James G. Dinan, the Achelis and Bodman Foundation, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP.

Summary

Uncover the array of tools, technologies, and lost professions that supported New York City as it exploded into a global metropolis in the pre-digital era.

Acknowledgements

Seasonal Opening Date

Last Chance!

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Collecting New York's Stories

tdawson — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 14:53:47 +0000

Collecting New York's Stories tdawson Mon, 11/29/2021 - 09:53

Collecting New York's Stories features highlights of the over 750,000 items in the Museum’s permanent collection, running the gamut from fine art to small tidbits of everyday life, from the colonial era to the recent past. The gallery presents original drawings by long-time New Yorker illustrator Saul Steinberg alongside garments, maps, decorative arts objects, and many other artifacts that capture the dynamic and eclectic lives led by some of the city’s inhabitants. Together, these beautiful, evocative, and poignant objects illuminate the compelling and layered identity of New York and its stories.

Hashtag

CollectingNYStories

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Start Date

Wed, 01/22/2020 - 12:00

End Date

Sun, 05/15/2022 - 12:00

Exhibition Category

Fashion

Sponsor(s)

Supporters

Collecting New York's Stories is made possible in part by the Charina Foundation, and the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation.

Summary

How can objects tell the dynamic and eclectic stories of New Yorkers? Find out through select items from the Museum's collections.

Seasonal Opening Date

Featured Image Credit

Wendy Yothers, Gotham Tea Service, 2017. Museum Purchase, Partial Gift of John Emory Largen, Sylvia Pierce Largen. Museum of the City of New York, 2018.38.1.1-.5A-B.

Last Chance!

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Puppets of New York

cmiyajima — Thu, 27 May 2021 19:08:53 +0000

Puppets of New York cmiyajima Thu, 05/27/2021 - 15:08

Press Highlights

Masters of NYC puppetry celebrated at new exhibit | NY1 (AUG. 12, 2021)

Oscar the Grouch, Lamb Chop and Howdy Doody are all characters that have enchanted kids of all ages for generations. They are also all puppets, made famous in New York City.

"Puppets are a part of New York as much as our average New Yorker, on the street, on the stages and part of Broadway,” said Whitney Donhauser, director and president of the Museum of the City of New York in East Harlem.

Who’s Pulling the Strings? A celebration of the puppets that have always lived among us. | Vulture (AUG. 5, 2021)

A new show at the Museum of the City of New York captures this heritage. Launched in collaboration with the International Puppet Fringe Festival NYC (which starts on August 11 at the Clemente Center), Puppets of New York will offer a historical look at the development of puppetry in the city as both a marker of and an instigator for cultural change.

Puppets of New York | The New Yorker

Oscar the Grouch, whose distinctive voice was inspired by a Bronx cabdriver, may be the quintessential New York puppet. In this raucous treat of an exhibition, at the Museum of the City of New York, he and his garbage can appear in an iteration from 1970, as well as in an early sketch by Jim Henson (in which the Muppets creator is seen considering the color pink for the shaggy curmudgeon).

A Puppet Festival Returns to New York, All Grown Up | The New York Times (AUG. 10, 2021)

Opening with five days of in-person performances, the International Puppet Fringe Festival NYC also includes streaming productions and an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.

'Puppets of New York' Exhibit | WNYC (DEC. 20, 2021)

The Museum of the City of New York's new exhibit, Puppets of New York, explores the diverse history of New York City’s quirkiest residents. From Punch and Judy to Oscar the Grouch; from Lamb Chop to The Lion King; from Lunar New Year to the Thanksgiving Day parade, the marionettes, shadow figures, and rod and hand puppets of New York have made appearances on our stages, studios, and streets. Curator Dr. Monxo López joins us to talk about the exhibition, alongside a surprise puppet appearance!

Puppets Of New York: Gallery Showcases History And Lasting Power Of Art Form | CBS New York (AUG. 12, 2021)

Lamb Chop greets visitors to the Puppets of New York gallery. Perpetually six years old, the puppet star was created in the 1950s by Parkchester native Shari Lewis.

“She knew how to dance, she knew how to sing, she knew magic, it was like an incredible package of a woman,” museum curator Monxo Lopez told Carlin. “And she knew business really, really well.”

Puppets of New York explores the extraordinary, surprising, and diverse history of New York City’s quirkiest residents. Puppets traveled with migrant communities from across the globe as they made their way to the city. Like other New Yorkers, they both enriched the metropolis and were transformed by it, as they encountered the heady mix of other puppetry traditions, practices, and languages that also made New York City home. From Punch and Judy to Oscar the Grouch; from Lamb Chop to The Lion King; from Lunar New Year to the Thanksgiving Day parade, the marionettes, shadow figures, and rod and hand puppets of New York have regaled our stages, studios, and streets. They have been broadcast all across the globe, and over time have reshaped the puppetry traditions of many cultures.

Jim Henson and Julie Taymor, Basil Twist and Theodora Skipitares, Ralph Lee and Pura Belpré, Great Small Works and Teatro SEA are just some the influential puppeteers featured in Puppets of New York, an exhibition poised to bring joy and awe, live performances and panels, workshops and movies to people of all ages.

Puppets of New York is part of a multi-sited collaboration between The Museum of the City of New York, The International Puppet Fringe Festival NYC, Teatro SEA, and The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, which includes the exhibition Puppets of New York: Downtown at The Clemente (August 11 – September 30), at 107 Suffolk Street.

Start Date

Fri, 08/13/2021 - 12:00

End Date

Sun, 04/03/2022 - 12:00

Exhibition Category

“HAO BANG-AH!” Hand Puppet Program for Families with Chinese Theatre Works  

“The Colors of Frida | Los colores de Frida” Performance for Families with Teatro SEA

Sponsor(s)

Supporters

Puppets of New York is made possible in part by Mrs. William T. Comfort, Cheryl Henson, Caroline A. Wamsler and DeWayne Phillips, the Lemberg Foundation, Inc., Kathy and Othon Prounis, and Eve Klein and Robert O. Owens.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Museum gratefully acknowledges The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s support for exhibition curator Dr. Monxo López’s fellowship. Puppets of New York is his capstone project.

Summary

Puppets of New York explores the extraordinary, surprising, and diverse history of New York City’s quirkiest residents. Puppets traveled with migrant communities from across the globe as they made their way to the city.

Seasonal Opening Date

Featured Image Credit

Lamb Chop at the Rockefeller Center observation deck, photographed by Asya Gorovits

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Exhibitions_NYNewMusic_Image1

New York, New Music

tdawson — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 15:25:30 +0000

New York, New Music tdawson Wed, 02/10/2021 - 10:25

1980–1986

During the early 1980s, New York experienced a community-driven musical renaissance. The result was an era of creativity and genre-defying performance that stands as one of the most influential in musical and cultural history. A wide range of music, from punk to pop to hip-hop to salsa to jazz, mixed in a dynamic arts scene that stretched across clubs and bars, theaters, parks, and art spaces. Together, they provided fertile ground for a musical revolution—one that continues to influence pop culture to this day. Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of MTV, New York, New Music: 1980–1986 highlights diverse musical artists—from Run DMC to the Talking Heads, from Madonna to John Zorn—as a lens to explore the broader music and cultural scene, including the innovative media outlets, venues, record labels, fashion and visual arts centered in New York City in these years.

Hashtag

80sMusicNYC

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Start Date

Fri, 06/11/2021 - 12:00

End Date

Sun, 09/18/2022 - 12:00

Exhibition Category

SOLD OUT: Moonlight & Movies | Downtown 81

Sponsor(s)

Supporters

New York, New Music: 1980-1986 is made possible in part by Elizabeth R. Miller and James G. Dinan, Daryl Brown Uber/William E. Weiss Foundation, and an Anonymous Family Foundation.

The Museum gratefully acknowledges the support of Kartell.

Summary

A look back at the seismic musical revolution of 1980s New York. #80sMusicNYC

Seasonal Opening Date

Featured Image Credit

Charlie Ahearn, [Debbie Harry, Fab 5 Freddy, Grandmaster Flash, and Chris Stein], 1981, Courtesy of the photographer

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Exhibitions_StettheimerDollhouse

The Stettheimer Dollhouse

tdawson — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 20:52:39 +0000

The Stettheimer Dollhouse tdawson Wed, 10/28/2020 - 16:52

Pick up or download your copy of the Stettheimer Dollhouse Kids' Guide, now available when you visit the Museum. Use this guide to think deeply, look closely, and learn more about this treasure from the Museum's collections.

Join Sarah Henry, Robert A. and Elizabeth Rohn Jeffe Chief Curator and Deputy Director, as she sits down with Simon Doonan, writer, bon vivant, media personality, and famous window dresser, for a talk connected to our exhibition Stettheimer Dollhouse Up C

Up Close

On December 18, 1945, the Museum of the City of New York held an unusual event: a house-warming for a doll’s house. Among the invited guests were Georgia O’Keeffe and other artistic luminaries of the day. They gathered to celebrate the unveiling of a one-of-a-kind three-dimensional piece of art made by Carrie W. Stettheimer, who had passed away the year before.

Today, the Stettheimer “doll’s house” – an artistic model made over the course of nearly two decades between 1916 and 1935 – is one of the great treasures of the Museum of the City of New York. Carrie, along with her sisters Ettie and Florine, hosted a famous artistic salon in the early 20th century, which influential art historian and critic Arthur Danto later called the “American Bloomsbury.” Ettie was a philosopher and novelist; Florine was a painter; Carrie was an aspiring theatrical designer whose artistic goals were derailed by her obligations to run the household. Her creative energies were channeled instead into the crafting of a miniature world whose interior reflected the Stettheimers’ life in their fashionable apartment and reflected the avant-garde artistic circles of New York in the 1920s

For 19 years, Carrie Stettheimer worked on this three-dimensional work of art, reflecting and reinterpreting the artistic, aesthetic, and cultural milieu in which she and her sisters moved. Among its most outstanding features is the ballroom, which features miniature works gifted to Carrie by some of the leading names of modern art in New York in the 1910s and 1920s, including Louis Bouché, Gaston Lachaise, Marguerite and William Zorach, and many others. A particular highlight is Marcel Duchamp’s miniature version of his famous Nude Descending a Staircase, which had created a sensation at the 1913 Armory Show in New York City.

Seventy-five years later, the Museum celebrates the anniversary of this extraordinary gift with a reinstallation of the famous Stettheimer dollhouse. A new, dedicated gallery will provide greater access to this extraordinary object during this time of social distancing, as well as biographical information about the Stettheimer sisters and the members of their circle, including influential artists who made miniature artworks for the house. Visitors will be able to view the house, learn about its features, view enlarged images of the tiny details, and discover rarely seen additional miniature works by some of the leading lights of early 20th-century modernism, among them a miniature George Bellows.

As Carrie’s sister Ettie wrote about the gift of the dollhouse to the Museum of the City of New York, “I feel certain that no repository would have been more satisfactory to her than the museum of her own city.”

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Start Date

Fri, 11/20/2020 - 12:00

End Date

Mon, 10/03/2022 - 12:00

Exhibition Category

Sponsor(s)

Supporters

The Museum gratefully acknowledges the support of the Lachaise Foundation.

Summary

Discover rarely seen miniature works from the Stettheimer Dollhouse created by some of the leading lights of early 20th-century modernism.

Seasonal Opening Date

Featured Image Credit

Carrie Stettheimer (1869 - 1944) Stettheimer Dollhouse Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Miss Ettie Stettheimer, 1945, 45.125.1. Photograph copyright the Museum of the City of New York, by Ali Elai of Camerarts, Inc.

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Blue Man Group: Ready...Go!

mdavis — Mon, 20 May 2019 14:22:08 +0000

Blue Man Group: Ready...Go! mdavis Mon, 05/20/2019 - 10:22

In 1991, a trio of bald, blue, and silent figures took up residence downtown in the Astor Place Theatre, and ever since, the group has been captivating audiences young and old with their curiosity, strangeness, and inclination to turn even the most mundane of objects into a musical instrument. One of the centerpieces of the show is a three-part percussive piece made out of PVC tubing. After 27 years, the original instrument was retired from stage life. Before traveling to its final resting place, the pipes will stop over for six weeks at the Museum of the City of New York. With Blue Man Group: Ready…Go! visitors learn about the group’s New York City origins, and have the opportunity to bang on a tube while taking a look at the world through the eyes of the Blue Man.

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Start Date

Fri, 07/19/2019 - 12:00

End Date

Mon, 09/02/2019 - 12:00

Exhibition Category