Weekend, July 20-21, 2024 –  EVER CURIOUS ABOUT THE INSIDE OF THE WASHINGTON SQUARE ARCH?

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INSIDE THE

WASHINGTON SQUARE ARCH

ISSUE # 1276

UNTAPPED NEW YORK

One of New York City’s most elusive places is the inside of the Washington Square Park arch, which has been long closed off to the public. Until a few years ago, the interior was too unstable for public access. But a video from the Unforgotten film series, which premiered first on Untapped New York in 2022, gives you a first-hand look inside. The episode, titled “How History, Community, and Art Can Define an Iconic New York City Monument,” features Sheryl Woodruff, Deputy Director of the Washington Square Park Conservancy; Nicholas Baume, Artistic & Executive Director at Public Art Fund; Karen Karbiener, Professor in the English department at New York University; and Michelle Young, the founder of Untapped New york. The video depicts everything from dance and music performances in the park to a public art installation and shots of the Arch’s interior.

The Unforgotten Films is now partnering with the New York Landmark Conservancy to highlight forgotten New York sites and their histories. For the next few months, the Conservancy will highlight a new Unforgotten film on social media. Each film will focus on a different location, from the abandoned hospital on Ellis Island to Green-Wood Cemetery. We’ll be following along, so stay tuned!

Untapped New York Insiders got to attend a live virtual screening of the Unforgotten film with creator Aaron Asis. You can watch a recording of this event in the Insiders on-demand archive, along with over 250+ other past virtual experiences! Become an Insider today to gain free access to the video archive and upcoming live in-person and virtual events.

The episode captures the diversity and the “greater city” within the park through interviews and B-roll scenes of daily life. The episode gives viewers a bit of a history lesson as well; the park was built atop a potter’s field with approximately 20,000 people buried by 1825. Washington Square Park was opened two years later as a military parade ground, which people used to congregate. The Arch was one of the final additions to the park after the fountain in the 1850s. The Arch has a spiral staircase inside that leads to the roof, giving the rare viewer a 360-degree look at Manhattan (access inside and atop was provided through a special joint event between Untapped New York and NYC Parks in 2019 thanks to former Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver).

In the episode, you will learn about the time Marcel Duchamp and other Dadaists illegally climbed to the top of the Arch and declared it an independent republic. Fast forward to the modern era, and the episode also dives into artist Ai Weiwei‘s 2017 sculpture “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors,” which served as a commentary on the increasing hostility towards immigrants nationwide. Ai integrated his sculpture into the shape of the arch, which the episode suggests reinforced the diversity and openness of people from all walks of life.

“Washington Square Park certainly is a cultural center and folks will rally either around the fountain or around the arch itself.” Sheryl Woodruff, Deputy Director of the Washington Square Park Conservancy, says in the video. “It’s been the site of protests, it’s been the site of incredible cultural activity in a place where you can feel the city’s presence very strongly,” Karen Karbiener of NYU and the Walt Whitman Initiative, continues.

Unforgotten Films is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council.

MARJORIE MATTHEWS AWARDS AT COLER

NYC Health + Hospitals celebrated their Community Advisory Boards and Hospital Auxiliaries on Thursday evening, at the waterfront tent in front of Coler.

Hundreds of guests gathered to acknowledge the community activities undertaken by each facility’s Community Advisory Board and Auxiliary. These groups operate across all our municipal hospitals and post-acute facilities.

These valuable organizations play a significant role in supporting the facilities and maintaining direct communication with the administration. The Auxiliaries are 501(c)3 not-for-profit organizations that fund activities, programs, and investments which the hospitals need but are unable to finance independently.

Above Borough President Mark Levine presented a proclamation to Verna Fitzpatrick, Chair of the Coler Community Advisory Board, along with Coler Executive Director Stephen Catullo

Judith Berdy and Jacqueline Kwedy of the Coler Auxiliary celebrate
Francine Benjamin  of the Resident Council celebrate with member Gloria Swaby

CREDITS

Untapped New York

Judith Berdy

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