The Tweed Courthouse, The Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank Building rooftop, and the Municipal Building rooftop with Andrea Geyer
November 29, 2006
6:30PM
FREE

Place: Located on a site previously occupied by the public common, a poorhouse and various cultural institutions, The New York County Courthouse--better known as the Tweed Courthouse--was the brainchild of municipal power-monger and crook, William Marcy Tweed--the "Boss Tweed" of New York City's Democratic 'machine.' Tweed's manipulation of public opinion and embezzlement of funds in connection with the construction of this building ultimately led to his imprisonment and to Tammany Hall's loss of political clout. Following a talk inside one of the courthouse's monumental landmark meeting rooms off the central Romanesque rotunda, a guide will then take guests across the street to the roof of The Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank to look into the eyes of the heroic figure of Adolph Weinman's "Civic Fame" in copper, 20 feet high, poised on a large copper ball. The model for this statue--New York's largest public statue--was Audrey Munson. Guests will again cross the street and go to the roof of the Municipal Building, one of the largest government buildings in the world and model for Stalin's University of Moscow. This skyscraper, the first one for firm McKim, Mead, and White, culminates in a central tower and is ornamented by the "Civic Fame" statue. From here guests can peer down and view what the statue sees--which is one of the most commanding views in all of New York.

Talk: Andrea Geyer, former Lower Manhattan Cultural Council resident-artist, is the author of an upcoming publication on Audrey Munson (commissioned by Art in General), which honors the life of one of New York City’s most famous artist’s models. Geyer, a German-born, New York-based artist, has conducted extensive research on Audrey Munson, whose likeness can be found throughout Manhattan allegorically representing concepts like freedom, purity, peace and truth. Geyer's book is not a biography, but a contextualization of Munson’s life within the larger struggle of women trying to find their voices and fair representation in the records of New York City history.

This program is co-organized by Art in General, who commissioned Andrea's artist book "Audrey Munson" (forthcoming)