This Is New York

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.