Photo Courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
The Public Design Commission will kick-start its City Hall tour program, opening the building to the public with a full schedule of new tours.
By Forum Staff
First Lady Chirlane McCray on Monday joined Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl, Public Design Commission Director Justin Moore, and curator Kalia Brooks to announce the re-launch of the City Hall public tour program.
As part of the reopening, the City will unveil the exhibit “City at Work: Portraits in Civic Pride,” a series of portraits of City workers and the New Yorkers they serve every day. The exhibit will be installed throughout the building, concentrated in the rotunda, and open to the public through the Public Design Commission tours.
“City Hall belongs to New Yorkers, and should reflect the vibrant diversity of all the people who make our city great,” McCray said. “The new public tour of City Hall, with the exhibit City at Work, features portraits of City workers from dozens of branches of local government alongside the people they serve every day. The men and women in these portraits keep our streets clean, our families safe, and our future bright. The art that hangs on the walls of City Hall is a reminder of our past and celebration of our present. I hope New Yorkers from all over the city have the opportunity to see these portraits. We want people to learn about our city’s history and government, and be inspired to participate in making it even better.”
According to the administration, the art exhibit is a creative project by the Mayor’s Office and the Department of Cultural Affairs that aims to use the visual history of the City Hall portrait collection as inspiration for selecting new images that celebrate civic pride through the many people and cultures that the City serves. “City at Work: Portraits in Civic Pride,” according to McCray and DCA, highlights the City’s emphasis on public service by focusing on individual and group portraits of municipal employees and residents. For the project, more than 30 City agencies were contacted. The result is a selection of photographs that represent the interaction between city government and constituents through a variety of diverse agencies and jobs – from sanitation, to education, to media and entertainment, to the records department.
“City Hall is an amazing building both for its past and its present. The refreshed tour program and the City at Work exhibition will enrich the experience of this great place as a historic building and as the control center of America’s largest urban workforce,” said Finkelpearl, who served as director of the Queens Museum from 2002 to 2014. “I am proud every time I walk into City Hall, and will be even more so now with this exhibition honoring the talented men and women from all backgrounds who serve the public in every corner of New York.”
In conjunction with the City at Work exhibit, the Public Design Commission will kick-start its City Hall tour program, opening the building to the public with a full schedule of tours. Based on in-depth historical research, the new tours will reveal the unique stories behind City Hall, the historic events that took place in and around the building, and the people who shaped the early development of the city and nation. Incorporating the contemporary photographs of City at Work, the tours will bridge the stories of the past to the lives of today – from the Dutch of the 1600s to Revolutionary War heroes to the many people who now live and work in the Big Apple.
