Sightsology
Ellis Island preservation group desperate for donations
Save Ellis Island, the non-profit that’s been methodically stabilizing 30 abandoned buildings at the country’s most famous immigration center, is in dire need of $500,000 in donations by April 2 in order to keep its own doors open, Judith McAlpin, President of SAE, today told NewYorkology.
 The small group has already cut staff, delayed projects and put employees on furloughs. But if it’s unable to pay rent and salaries, unspent grants must be returned and no more buildings will open to the public.
Before Save Ellis Island started work a decade ago, two-thirds of the island was in serious disrepair, with crumbling staircases, broken windows and trees sprouting indoors. The deterioration has been on the public radar since 2005, when free hard-hart tours of the old hospital were first offered as part of the annual Open House New York event.
So far, 29 of the 30 abandoned buildings have been stabilized but only one has reopened as part of the museum. In 2007, SAE and the National Park Service opened the “new” ferry building, an art deco, WPA-era buidling used by immigrants who cleared customs and were waiting for the boat to Manhatttan. The renovation includes a functioning fan and bench both original to the room, as well as exhibits.
The one still-exposed building — the giant baggage and dormitory building that faces north to the Hudson River — last year received U.S. stimulus funds. The National Park Service, which runs Ellis and Liberty islands, is overseeing that project and the initial phase of stabilization has begun, NPS spokesman Darren Boch said .
While funds are available to prevent more damage to the baggage building, without Save Ellis Island, there would be no plans to reopen any more buildings.”It’s not going to happen in their absence,” Boch said in an interview this morning. “We have to work with a partner.”
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March 19, 2010 11:55 AM Comments (0)
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Lego repairs come to NY Public Libray, Central Park
It looks like artist Jan Vormann has had a busy trip to New York City.
A few weekends ago, NewYorkology spotted his Lego fill-in work at the wall of Chelsea’s General Theological Seminary, but apparently he was also hard at work in the West Village, Central Park, Times Square, Dumbo and other locations around Manhattan and Brooklyn. Even the New York Public Library needed a little work done.
Vormann’s website has a new section, DispatchWork -New York, filled with pictures of the work.
“In cooperation with the Gallery Jarmuschek+Partner and the kind support of Henk Holzheimer (LEGO Graffity Styles Convention), I went to New York City, as part of the VOLTA artshow, to support Mayor Bloomberg in his everyday-struggle to make this city even more amazing,” Vormann says on the website.
Previously his DispatchWork Lego installations have popped up in Berlin, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Quito, Belgrade and other cities.
Update on March 9: “I am now back in Berlin, but I loved it in New York,” Vormann said in an e-mail to NewYorkology late Monday. Also, a story in today’s New York Post notes that almost all of the Lego installations have already been removed.
Picture credit: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
(Editor’s note: Credit goes to 14-year-old Christopher Langfield who first spotted the Chelsea Legos on Feb. 21 and said it looked like the work of a European artist he’d read about.)
Earlier: Guggenheim Museum for sale, by Lego
March 8, 2010 9:48 AM Comments (1)
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New mural, video, sound installation for Times Square
Times Square today is adding new outdoor public art — in paint, sound and video — to coincide with the Armory Show and other art fairs descending on the city this week.
The eight-story Nasdaq video screen will display “Black Sun,” the work of Alexandre Arrechea, every night at 11:50 p.m. until midnight. The video, which shows a wrecking ball repeatedly bouncing against the building, will screen through March 8.
Nasdaq has its own Times Square webcam so you can watch online.
Up in Duffy Square at 46th and Broadway, a sound sculpture by David Ellis and Roberto Lange will play percussive, rhythmic beats and tones generated by buckets, bottles, trash cans, paper shreds and cardboard boxes. The intention is to play on the public’s perception of trash.
Outside the Times Square Theater, Pratt graduate Sofia Maldonado has painted a 92-foot mural of NYC women from her Puerto Rican-Cuban heritage, (pictured, top.)
The art is all part of Public Art Program of the Times Square Alliance and made possible by the Cuban Artists Fund, Rockefeller Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, NASDAQ, Times Square Squared, The New 42nd Street, Magnan Metz Gallery, Scope Art Fair and Anonymous Gallery.
Image source: Times Square Alliance.
Earlier: Pedestrian areas get final OK for Times, Herald squares
Free wi-fi turned on in Times Square
March 2, 2010 11:43 AM Comments (1)
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Wales Week in NYC spotlights poet Dylan Thomas
Wales Week USA begins today in New York with a focus on the poetery of Dylan Thomas.
 Starting Tuesday, the Morgan Library & Museum will serve a special Welsh Tea and open the exhibition Dylan Thomas: Last Poems, featuring ” a characteristically playful and flirtatious letter from Dylan Thomas to Ellen Kay, a 22-year old aspiring poet with whom Thomas was enamored.” It will be on public view through Sunday.
On Sunday, a Dylan Thomas Walking Tour of Greenwich Village will cover the poet’s favorite downtown spots starting at 9:30 a.m.
Other events inlcude a Saturday concert led by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, who will conduct his own work at Carnegie Hall including the U.S. debut of his Euphonium Concerto.
Wales Week, sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government in the U.S., runs from March 1 through 7.
Image source: Morgan Library & Museum. Vernon Watkins (1906–1967) Photograph of Dylan Thomas and his wife Caitlin Macnamara, undated. Bequest of Edwin V. Erbe, Jr., 2007; MA 7172.1
March 1, 2010 10:50 AM Comments (0)
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Tribeca Film Fest to open with 'Shrek Forever After'
The ninth annual Tribeca Film Festival will open April 21 with “Shrek Forever After,” a 3-D finale to the DreamWorks animated ogre series, festival organizers announced today.
This year’s festival will run from April 21 thorugh May 2. The full slate of feature films will be announced on March 10 and 15. Individual screenings will costs $16 on evenings and weekends but only $8 on daytime weekdays and late nights. Tickets have not gone on sale, but they are accepting volunteer sign-ups to work the festival in exchange for some freebies.
Single tickets will go on sale April 13 for American Express card holders; April 18 for downtown residents (the festival started post-9/11 to bring business back downtown,) and to the general public on April 19.
The Shrek movie features the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas and is directed by Mike Mitchell.
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March 1, 2010 8:47 AM Comments (0)
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Empire State Building lights up in Olympic Ring colors
The Empire State Building this weekend will pay tribute to the athletes of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games by lighting up in the colors of the Olympic Rings.
 The lighting schedule:
North side: blue and black
East side: yellow and black
South side: green and black
West side: red and black
The top tiers of the tower will be lit up in Olympic colors from Friday night through Sunday night.
The Olympic Rings represent the union of the continents and the meeting of athletes from around the world at the Olympic Games.
February 26, 2010 7:22 PM Comments (0)
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Sun emerges (briefly) after slushy snow day
A few pictures from a walk around Red Hook, Brooklyn just as the sun popped out this afternoon.
A full roundup to come, including links to the Broadway shows that are offering snow day discounts tonight.
As of 2 p.m., there were 20.8 inches of snow in Central Park; 11.8 inches at LaGuardia Airport; 26 inches in Great Kills, Staten Island; and 20 inches in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx; according to NY1.
Broadway snow deals:
A Behanding in Spokane - details for $41.50 tickets
Memphis - details for $26.50 tickets
Hair - details for $40 tickets
Mamma Mia! - details for $31.50 tickets
Time Stands Still - details for $38 tickets
Next to Normal - details for $40 tickets
In the Heights - details for 40 percent discount
It’s also worth noting that tonight is the final Friday night of the Restaurant Week extension.
NYC Daily Deals had the picture of the day — “two feet of snow” — taken in Washington Heights.
Picture credits: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
February 26, 2010 2:46 PM Comments (0)
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Italy loans Greek kylix, Roman dining set to Met
A Roman silver dining set salvaged from Vesuvius’ ashes and a terracotta kylix from Sparta will be on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the next four years thanks to a special loan from the Republic of Italy.
 The silver, known as the Moregine Treasure, was buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, and was unearthed in 2000 in a wicker basket and hidden in the basement of an unfinished public bath house. “The two canthari (drinking cups) are of particular interest and were likely prized antiques at the time they were buried, having been made over a century earlier at the very end of the Hellenistic era, likely in Alexandria, Egypt,” the Met states in its news release announcing the loan. “They seem to commemorate what is sometimes known as the Treaty of Brundisium between Mark Anthony and Octavian in 40 B.C., just four years after the assassination of Caesar. This historic treaty gave Mark Anthony command of the eastern Roman provinces, while Octavian was given control over Italy and the West.”
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February 24, 2010 12:12 PM Comments (0)
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Opening night on Broadway tickets available to public
On occasion, even the avarage joe gets to walk the red carpet.
Opening night on Broadway performances are often for invited guests only, but now and then seats go on sale to the general public at regular prices. More than a dozen shows are scheduled to open on Broadway in the next few months, but currently only two have seats for sale:
 A Behanding in Spokane - March 4
Promises, Promises - April 25
Of course there is some risk that producers may change the date of opening night, and then you may be out of luck. To keep track of the dates, see The Broadway League’s opening night calendar and the Playbill listings.
Related: Links to the official websites for all Broadway shows
Broadway shows on Twitter
Image source: Official website for “Promises, Promises”
Earlier: Studio audience tix: SNL, Letterman, Martha, Colbert
February 23, 2010 10:14 AM Comments (0)
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Coyote returns to Central Park pond near The Plaza
 Central Park’s latest coyote visitor was spotted last night on the ice of The Pond, located near the southeast corner of the park, according to D. Bruce Yolton who has posted video and a trove of pictures on his blog, Urban Hawks.
Image source: Urban Hawks and Other Wildlife in Central Park and NYC.
Earlier: Bald eagle seen soaring over Central Park
February 23, 2010 7:21 AM Comments (0)
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