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400 Years of NYC History

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Framed around the key themes of money, density, diversity, and creativity, New York City’s history and future come alive in this first-of-its-kind exhibition, through the stories of innovation, energy, struggle, and the vision of generations of immigrants, politicians, tycoons, dreamers, master builders, and ordinary New Yorkers.

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Sponsors

New York at Its Core is made possible by:

James G. Dinan and Elizabeth R. Miller; Pierre DeMenasce; The Thompson Family Foundation; Jerome L. Greene Foundation in honor of Susan Henshaw Jones; Heather and Bill Vrattos; Charina Endowment Fund; National Endowment for the Humanities; Citi; Zegar Family Foundation; Tracey and Kenneth A. Pontarelli; Hilary Ballon and Orin Kramer; Jill and John Chalsty; Dyson Foundation; Robert A. and Elizabeth R. Jeffe Foundation; Valerie and Jack Rowe; Mary Ann and Bruno A. Quinson; Carnegie Corporation of New York; Booth Ferris Foundation; Institute of Museum and Library Services; The David Berg Foundation; The Joelson Foundation; The Hearst Foundations; Stephen and Stephanie Hessler; William and Elizabeth Kahane; James A. Lebenthal; John P. Strang Trust; An Anonymous Donor; Newton P. S. Merrill and Polly Merrill; Laura Lofaro Freeman and James L. Freeman; Cynthia Foster Curry; Stephen and Cynthia Ketchum; Robert and Carola Jain; Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation; Todd DeGarmo/STUDIOS Architecture; Jim and Diane Quinn; Mitchell S. Steir/Savills Studley; Netherland-America Foundation; American Express Foundation; The Barker Welfare Foundation; Con Edison; Dutch Culture USA/Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York;

Jerome L Greene Logo
NEH logo

Leslie and Mark Godridge; Lorna and Edwin Goodman; Kathy and Othon Prounis; Daryl Brown Uber/William E. Weiss Foundation; Ann and Adam Spence; The Ambrose Monell Foundation; Atran Foundation; Nancy and James Druckman; Tom and Deban Flexner; Budd and Jane Goldman; Jim Hanley/Taconic Builders Inc.; Sylvia Hemingway; Susan Jang and Kenneth E. Lee; Gurudatta and Margaret Nadkarni; Nixon Peabody LLP; Mr. and Mrs. Stanley DeForest Scott; Elizabeth Farran and W. James Tozer Jr.; John and Barbara Vogelstein Foundation; Greater Hudson Heritage Network; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Melissa Mark-Viverito, Speaker, New York City Council; EvensonBest; Daniel R. Garodnick, New York City Council; Elizabeth Graziolo; David Guin and Kym McClain; Stanford and Sandra Ladner; Lucius N. Littauer Foundation; Mary Ann and Martin J. McLaughlin; Museum Association of New York; New Netherland Institute; Jane B. and Ralph A. O’Connell; Constance and Arthur Rosner; Sandy and Larry Simon; Taconic Charitable Foundation; New York Council for the Humanities; Benjamin J. Kallos, New York City Council; Longhill Charitable Foundation; Vidda Foundation; Kathleen S. Brooks Family Foundation; Whitney and Peter Donhauser; Ferris Foundation/Susan Henshaw Jones; Jeffrey Tabak/Miller Tabak + Co. LLC; The Trafelet Foundation; and Mark Forrest Gilbertson.

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1220 Fifth Ave at 103rd St., HOURS: Mon-Fri 10-5 | Sat-Sun 10-6
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Urban Design Council

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1220 Fifth Ave at 103rd St., HOURS: Mon-Fri 10-5 | Sat-Sun 10-6
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Exhibition Sponsorship

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1220 Fifth Ave at 103rd St., HOURS: Mon-Fri 10-5 | Sat-Sun 10-6
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Support our Education Initiatives

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Civil Rights in Brooklyn

Tuesday, October 25, 2016 by Lilly Tuttle, PhD.

By Lilly Tuttle, PhD.

Related Stories
Behind-the-Scenes Tuesday, May 31, 2016

A View of Melrose

On a hot August afternoon last summer, I left the office early and caught the 5 train north. My objective was to locate the site of the Ursuline Convent in what had once been the rural village of Melrose, and was now the heart of the South Bronx.
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Activist New York Programs

Activist New York Image
Photo by Tristan Loper via Flickr Creative Commons | flickr.com/photos/tristanloper

In a town renowned for its in-your-face persona, citizens have banded together on issues as diverse as historic preservation, civil rights, wages, sexual orientation, and religious freedom. Inspired by the ongoing exhibition Activist New York, which presents the ideas and conflicts that underlie New York City’s history of agitation, this program series looks at how a legacy of social activism shapes the city we know today.

Photograph of a zine that says "For Teens! And Young Adults! VIRTUAL ZINE WORKSHOP WITH MCNY AND THE NYPL. free. on zoom. free." The zine is on a desk with paper, pencils, and a marker.
Event Tuesday, July 12, 5:30pm

Past: Virtual Zine Workshop

Join us for a virtual zine workshop, in collaboration with The New York Public Library. Learn about the history of zines in activist movements, and then make your own!
Left image: Two children standing side by side with their backs turned to the camera. Child on the left wearing a green cape with star and the letter “A” stitched on. Child on the right wearing a yellow cape with a design stitched on to it. Right image: The Katal Center protesting their “Cut, Shut, Invest” campaign by holding cardboard scissors.
Event Saturday, June 11, 11:00am

Past: Community Arts as Activism Workshop

Kick off the Museum of the City of New York’s first-ever "Freedom Week: A Journey into Art and Activism" with our first celebration of freedom through art-making for families and children.
I Too Am America: On Loving and Leading Black Men & Boys book cover
Event Wednesday, June 8, 6:30pm

Past: I Too Am America: On Loving and Leading Black Men & Boys

Join authors Shawn Dove and Nick Chiles for a celebration of stories of loving, learning and leading for and by Black men and boys, including a special reading and conversation around their acclaimed book, I Too Am America: On Loving and Leading Black Men & Boys. 
On a lime green background, there is a hand holding soil and a cartoon plant, a white doodle of waves, an image of an apple, the NYC skyline, a doodle of a protest sign with an Earth drawn inside, and a picture of a little girl reaching into an aluminum tray. In the center, the words "Green Activist New York Fest" are written in a beige circle.
Event Sunday, October 17, 11:00am

Past: Green Activist New York Fest

Join us for a free, outdoor and intergenerational day of empowerment, action, and art inspired by the city's thriving climate activism scene.

Supporters

Activist New York and its associated programs are made possible by The Puffin Foundation, Ltd. 

Activist New York is the inaugural exhibition in The Puffin Foundation Gallery, which is dedicated to the ways in which ordinary New Yorkers have exercised their power to shape the city's and the nation's future.

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AIDS at Home Programs

Kia LaBeija, The First Ten Years, 2014. Courtesy the artist.

This series, presented in conjunction with the Museum's exhibition AIDS at Home: Art and Everyday Activism (on view through October 22, 2017) brings together artists, photographers, and filmmakers to discuss the HIV/ AIDS epidemic in New York and its social, political, and emotional impact, from the earliest reported cases in 1981 up to the present. 

Click on a program below to learn more and purchase tickets. 

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A City Seen: Todd Webb's Post War New York, 1945-1960

125th Street, Harlem, New York, 1945, photography by Todd Webb, courtesy of Evans Gallery and Todd and Lucille Webb Estate

Following World War II, Todd Webb, a recently discharged Navy veteran, moved to New York City and took pictures of the city’s residents, booming waterfront, and rising skyline. Inspired by our upcoming exhibition A City Seen: Todd Webb's Post War New York, 1945-1960 (opens April 20th) join us for a series of conversations to examine Webb’s masterly but little-known work as a street photographer and the immediate postwar decades. 

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Posters and Patriotism Programs

Although New York City was located some 4,000 miles from Europe’s bloodiest battlefields during World War I, it nonetheless played an important role in the conflict, particularly as a producer of all types of war propaganda. Inspired by our exhibition, Posters and Patriotism: Selling World War I in New York (on view through October 9, 2017), and on the 100th anniversary of the U.S.
Event Wednesday, April 5, 6:30pm

Past Event: Propaganda by Design

Leading graphic designers will discuss rarely exhibited propaganda posters and offer a glimpse into the world of design today.
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Mastering the Metropolis: New York and Zoning, 1916-2016 

Rob Stephenson, 432 Park Avenue, Manhattan, 2016. Courtesy of the photographer/Museum of the City of New York

The character of New York City’s varied neighborhoods is governed by a novel set of rules first shaped by reformers one hundred years ago: the pioneering Zoning Resolution of 1916. Co-presented with The Municipal Art Society, our Mastering the Metropolis: New York and Zoning, 1916-2016 programs chart the city’s evolving approaches to zoning. 
Event Thursday, January 26, 6:30pm

Zoning for Public Good

Explore how we can optimize zoning to achieve a more equitable city with leading experts.

Co-Sponsors

Presented in collaboration with The Municipal Art Society.

The public programs series for Mastering the Metropolis is co-sponsored by AIA New York Chapter | Center for Architecture, the New York Department of City Planning, and the New York Academy of Medicine, as well as the Barnard College & Columbia University Architecture Department, the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, the CUNY School of Architecture, the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, the Historic Districts Council, the Institute for Public Architecture, theNYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, the NYU Urban Design and Architecture Studies Program, the Regional Plan Association, theRutgers Department of Landscape Architecture, the Society of Architectural Historians, the Urban Planning Student Association at NYU Wagner, and WE ACT for Environmental Justice.

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