Museum of the City of New York- seminar

New York City Throughout Time

Museum of the City of New York is dedicated to New York’s history and its people. There are two particular exhibitions: Mastering the Metropolis: New York and Zoning, 1916-2016, and Activist New York. They share the story of New York City’s construction and the efforts of historic activist movements.

Mastering the Metropolis: New York and Zoning, 1916-2016 details the history of overpopulation in the city and the subsequent detriments as a result of it.  The lack of space and high rent affects everyone in the city, and it also affects developing artists. Long Live Loft Living, LIFE, March 27, 1970 is a private collection that illustrates photographs of artists trying to find a place to live that has enough space for them to work on their large scale artworks in the city. One story that is labeled under the photograph explains that many artists would secretly find and utilize vacant rooms in their apartment complexes as studio spaces. When the landlord came for a visit, they made their artworks disappear as if they were never there. It just goes to show how desperately they needed space but wanted to continue developing as artists in New York City. The narratives from this collection comes from the artists themselves. Next to the photographs, quotes from artists are shown. One unnamed artist remarks, “If you don’t have lots of room, your ideas get very small”. I found this quote profound because I am also an artist so I can personally relate. Naturally, not everyone who visits the museum will be artists, but everyone has a specialty or hobby that they love. It would be hard to imagine not being able to enjoy those hobbies to the fullest because you lack the necessary tools.

Visuals are very important and impactful to display stories such as these because the narrative makes people empathize with the hardships the artists have gone through. This particular part of the exhibition intrigued me the most because of the photographs and the minimal use of words compared to the other parts of the exhibit. This section was very successful in getting their point across without putting too much information that could overwhelm the audience. The photograph was taken with the intent to show the audience an actual scaled layout of a cluttered urban loft. There are numerous artists engaged in both their art and with each other.

However, most of the exhibit’s work consists of visual data such as graphs and grids that is utilized as a creative way to represent the system of how the city space is broken down throughout time. The graphs and charts differ from the photographs of artists living in lofts in the sense that the visual data is factual. The photographs comparatively express the people’s concerns regarding lack of space and high costs through a more visual approach.

Activist New York exhibition was more interactive with and contained a more variety of electronics with artifacts. The layout of the exhibit was in a system of chronological order.  As you walk down the room, the exhibition guides you to one section at a time. Examples of sections consist of environmentalism, religious freedom, economic rights, and immigration. These are set as “booths” and as you look down the booth, you see a timeline of all the key events that have happened in the city. At the far backside of the exhibition, there are 10 minute documentaries of current and past New York activists who share their stories. In order to keep the peace and quiet of the exhibition, the videos come with headphones that you may listen to in private. It becomes an intimate interaction between the person and the activist talking. The documentaries show the protests in action along with many people’s stories. There is a common theme of personal perspectives coming from the residents of New York City in both exhibitions. The artists that fought for their space in the city and the activist groups of New York both stood against a slowly progressing system, and for what they believe is the common right for every person residing in the city. It takes more than just one protest to get people to change the way they think, the documentaries proved that there is a complex system of baby steps that must be taken to form a big impact in people’s hearts.

 

Citations/Bibliography

 

“Activist New York.” Museum of the City of New York. 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street New York, NY 10029. 17 February 2017.

 

“New York at Its Core.” Museum of the City of New York. 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street New York, NY 10029. 17 February 2017.

 

Wall text, Affordable Housing, Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY.
Wall text, Long Live Loft Living, LIFE, March 27, 1970, Museum of the City of New York City, New York, NY

 

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