Central Park

The Daily Plant : Monday, April 16, 2001

“THE PARKS, MONUMENTS & MALLS OF NEW YORK CITY” OPENS AT THE ARSENAL GALLERY

Photo by Spencer (Flasher) Tucker

From now until May 11, Parkies are invited to enjoy the diverse works of 26 fine artists and photographers from the West Side Arts Coalition. Founded in 1979, the group makes their home in the Broadway Mall Community Center at 96th street. From the windows of their studio, they look out on Parks' treetops. In their works on exhibit now at the Arsenal Gallery, spectators may enjoy the unique, oblique angle of their lenses and their gazes. In their works, familiar places are made new again when viewed from above and below, around and under. The literal and abstract responses to Parks' wealth of wonders, from the well-known to the nearly unknown, is a chance for viewers to research new haunts and revisit favorite ones with fresh eyes. Visitors may spot Central, Battery, Bryant, Riverside, Fort Tryon, Verdi, and Forests Hills Parks among the pieces on view.

On Wednesday, April 11, 2001. Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern welcomed the West Side Arts Coalition to the Arsenal Gallery observing, "in the artistic range of your works, we see reflected the range of park uses." Raul Manzano, President of the West Side Arts Coalition also welcomed the crowd at the opening. Public Art Coordinator, Adrian (Sassafras) Sas curates the exhibit under the guidance of Jonathan (Archive) Kuhn, Director of Art and Antiquities. All of the featured works are on sale. For more information, please contact Adrian Sas at (212) 360-8163.

click here for more info about the Arsenal Gallery

CENTRAL PARK'S PHOTOGRAPHERS

In the last 65 years, Central Park has seen 12 Parks Commissioners, 2 Conservancy Presidents, a new Sheep's Meadow, a new North Meadow, the Great Lawn made lush, and the reconstruction of countless of its best features. For each of those years, members of the Park West Camera Club were poised beside tree trunks, along the bridle path, and in the middle of the meadow to document change. Since their founding, they've been finding photogenic features of the park. This month, for the first time, their work is exhibited at the park in the Central Park Conservancy's new photo gallery at the Dairy. In exhibiting the work of the Park West Camera Club, The Central Park Conservancy is celebrating their loyalty to the Park as an artistic subject; as the woods of France were to the Barbizon Painters, so Central Park is to the Park West Camera Club.

While they shoot as individuals, the members of the Park West Camera Club explore Central Park as a group. When he greeted them at the opening of their exhibit, Tuesday, April 10, 2001 Commissioner Stern noted that we are indebted to them for their use of the park. "Groups like theirs foster friendships and a feeling of community within the park. Their presence helps make Central Park hospitable for all of us." Barbara (Bee Lady) Nowak, Director of Family & Community Programs for the Central Park Conservancy; Sara (Cedar Hill) Cedar Miller, Central Park Conservancy Photographer and Historian; and Jessica Green, Graphic Design Manager for the Central Park Conservancy organized and curate the exhibit of 39 works. Pierre Boule, Manager of the Central Park Dairy and the Dairy staff host the exhibit.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT
(Monday, April 25, 1988)

STATEN ISLANDERS PLANT TREE IN MEMORY OF JENNIFER SCHWEIGER

At a solemn, moving ceremony, several hundred friends and family members of Jennifer Schweiger gathered with Commissioner Stern last Friday at Westerleigh Park, at Willard and Maine Avenues on Staten Island, to plant a Shadbush tree in remembrance of the 12-year-old Staten Island girl found murdered last year.

"Although the events that brought about today's occasion are sad, we at Parks are happy that the community has chosen this tree planting in a park as a way to remember Jennifer," said Stern.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"Whatever a poet writes with enthusiasm and a divine inspiration is very fine."

Democritus (c. 460-400 B.C.)

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center