Public Art Walking Tours
The Council is pleased to present a series of three theme-based self-guided audio walking tours exploring the meaning, reception, and context of public art in Lower Manhattan.
Tour 1: Art & Security
With public art in Lower Manhattan placed amongst real threats and expressions of state power, how can art contribute to our security, either by acting as a physical barrier to a space or as a symbolic marker of authority?
Duration: approximately 45 minutes
Starts at the corner of Centre St. and White St. Ends at Trinity Church
Download tour (right-click this link (ctrl-click if you have a Mac) and choose Save Target As.. (or Save Link As) to download) | Print map (optional) | Get directions to the starting point
Tour 2: Art and the Body
Statues of human bodies - public art - seem in some ways bridge a gap between architecture and the body. Join us as we look at the history and context of Lower Manhattan through the lens of bodies in art.
Starts at Federal Hall National Monument on Wall St. between Nassau St. and William St.
Download tour (right-click this link (ctrl-click if you have a Mac) and choose Save Target As.. (or Save Link As) to download) | Print map | Get directions to the starting point
Tour 3: Monuments and Memory
On this tour we look at monuments and memorials that aren't just passive things to be looked at. They're active sites which contribute to our collective formation of memory. In the other tours we look at the ways in which public art can define a space. Now we'll hopefully look at how public art defines the way in which we, as a culture, remember.
Starts at The Sphere in Battery Park
Download tour (right-click this link (ctrl-click if you have a Mac) and choose Save Target As.. (or Save Link As) to download) | Print map
Your Guides
Perry Garvin and William Smith
William Smith is a graduate student at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and an Independent Culture Consultant. He has worked most recently with the Fabric Workshop and Museum, 2wice Magazine and Art In General.
Perry Garvin, a graduate of Columbia University's masters program in Modern Art.
