Arty New York


One of my favorite things about New York city is the vibrant art scene. You don't even have to step foot into an art gallery, art surrounds you everywhere.  I snapped these public art displays during my long strolls though Harlem. The first two murals were painted by school children and the next to last mural graces the subway. The stately bronze sculpture is of legendary freedom fighter Harriet Tubman, casting her protection over Harlem streets.





Comments

Unknown said…
the "Entrance Uptown" is awesome. New York is such an awesome place. I can't say that enough. =D
August 5, 2010 at 7:37 PM
eden said…
NY is such a beautiful place. Lots of things to see and do. I love these arts. They are beautiful and colourful. Hope to visit there someday.
August 8, 2010 at 4:25 AM
Jean-Luc Picard said…
Quite dazzling and colourful.
August 8, 2010 at 10:44 AM
Fly Girl said…
Roschelle, that mural is really easy to miss on the subway but I think it captures NY energy so well.

Eden, there are non-stop activities in NY but the public art is something you can actually relax and enjoy.

Jean-Luc, yes they are!
August 8, 2010 at 4:19 PM
Rachel Cotterill said…
I love public art like that - fabulous :)
August 9, 2010 at 2:11 PM
Fly Girl said…
Rachel, I think art for all is the best way to eaxerience it.
August 9, 2010 at 7:26 PM
Fly Girl said…
Tiffany, I think it is too. Public art offers so much more than beautifying a place, it creates a whole aura.
August 9, 2010 at 7:45 PM
Mary said…
These are gorgeous! Do you know anything about them? How they were commissioned? Who were the artists?
August 10, 2010 at 12:07 AM
Fly Girl said…
Mary, I was just wondering around when I saw most of them. I know the first one was comissioned by a community group for neighborhood kids to create. The Harriet Tubman sculpture was also recently comissioned by a community group.
August 10, 2010 at 6:35 AM
Unknown said…
Talent is everywhere, why go into a gallery when you can see the real work outside.
August 11, 2010 at 10:50 AM
Ekua said…
I love public art, especially when you find it places that might be conventionally considered ugly. I just love the idea of people trying to beautify a place in whatever way they can.
August 12, 2010 at 3:14 PM
Fly Girl said…
Cate, that's a really good point. I have nver believe that art needs to be legitimized by galleries and museums, it's everywhere.

Ekua, none of these places were conventionally ugly except the subway!
August 12, 2010 at 6:50 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Puerto Rico's Taino Culture

Image
The original inhabitants of the Caribbean region of North America were the Arawak, Taino and Carib  native peoples.  The Tainos are a subgroup of the Arawaks and are recognized as the founders of the island of Boriken or Puerto Rico.  These were the people who offered a peaceful welcome to Columbus in 1493.  They didn't know the cruelty and violence that would follow his so-called "discovery" of the land that they had cultivated for centuries. Despite official government pronouncements that the Taino have been killed off by the massacres and slavery that followed in Columbus' wake, they live on.  As demonstrated in the photo above by  members of  the Puerto Rico Folklorico Dance & Culture Cultural Cente r, Taino traditions, food and names remain strong. Throughout Puerto Rico, town names like Mayaquez, Utuado and Caquas echo the Taino language as do the musical instrument maracas and hamaca or hammock. Legends of Taino warriors, like Hatuey, who organized the ba
Read more

Traveling Through A Liberian Childhood

Image
I like to explore the world with books as much as I like to actually travel. A well-written narrative can transport you to places that you'd never experience with just superficial details like photos and descriptions. I've been interviewing writers about the criteria they use to select books for Summer reading and it made me think about my own general reading criteria. As a journalist, I'm really drawn to biographies, autobiographies and memoirs more than fiction. There's something about using the facts to entice readers into your world that gets me. It's no coincidence that some of my favorite writers--Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zora Neale Hurston, Hemingway, started out as journalists. So when I glimpsed The House at Sugar Beach , at my local bookstore and saw it was a memoir written by a journalist, it was pretty much a done deal that I would buy it. Now it wasn't only that the author Helene Cooper was a journalist, it was that she was a Liberian journalist chro
Read more

Switzerland's Fete Des Vignerons

Image
                                               Once every generation, the centuries-old viticultural festival, Fete des Vignerons, unfolds in Vevey, Switzerland. Watching this spectacle of music, dancing, wine and fanciful costumes, felt like I had been transported to something out of a Dr. Seuss story. With a law that prohibits the fest from taking place more than five times in a century, I felt incredibly lucky to witness this celebration of Swiss wine traditions dating back to the 17th century.  Some of the fetes 5,500 performers in costumes strolled the narrow streets of Vevey after a show that featured fairies, bees, royal courts, playing cards and 17th-century wine growers. The performance was in French but the drama transcended language barriers. It's a difficult experience to describe but if I had to sum it up, I would explain it as the magic of Cirque Du Soleil combined with the pageantry of the Olympics, topped with the history of folk celebrations.  Take a peek at my v
Read more