Reservations opened today for the general public to secure free passes to visit the 9/11 Memorial starting Sept. 12, 2011.
Still very much a construction site, the plaza will be open on a limited basis but the museum is not scheduled to open until 2012.
The memorial plaza features two waterfalls and reflecting pools set within the footprints of the original World Trade Center towers.
Online registration for the passes is free, but users must set up an account “in order to prevent the improper use of Visitor Passes, to provide the 9/11 Memorial with contact information to notify Visitor Pass holders of any changes to their reservations and to provide visitors with applicable tax documents for their donations,” according to the official 9/11 Memorial website.
The American Folk Art Museum collects the works of contemporary and traditional and self-taught artists, with objects dating from the 18th century to the present.
“Efforts to balance our budget and bring meaningful fiscal stability to the museum’s annual operations have been effective, but we have made little progress in raising the substantial funds necessary to satisfy the bond on our West 53rd Street building,” American Folk Art Museum President Laura Parsons announced in May. “The constant burden of servicing and paying down this debt imperils the institution and distracts the museum’s board and staff from our pursuit of programmatic excellence.” Crain’s pegged the debt at $32 million. MoMA did not disclose the price paid for the building, but Parsons told the New York Times it was enough to retire the Folk Museum’s debt.
Cooper-Hewitt galleries closing for major renovation
Today is the final day to see the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum before all the galleries close to the public for a major renovation.
The final exhibition, “Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels” is open until 6 p.m. today. Admission, normally $15 for adults, is free on July 4.
The Cooper-Hewitt’s main facility in the Carnegie Mansion on Museum Mile will undergo a $64 million renovation and expansion starting in the fall. The museum will reopen in 2013 with 60 percent more gallery space.
The museum’s Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden and gift shop will remain open all summer without an admission fee. The free David Rockwell-designed Imagination Playground program will also continue to operate, weather permitting from 10 a.m. to noon.
“We are sensitive to our visitors, from both around the city and around the world, for whom rising costs in all sectors create a constant challenge. But like other New York institutions, the Met faces a number of daunting, ongoing budgetary challenges of its own. We are committed to the study and preservation of our exceptional collection, as well as to ensuring the best experience for our millions of visitors. But we can only pursue these goals by generating diverse and dependable revenue streams to support our activities,” Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum said last month in a statement announcing the price increase.
“As with many not-for-profit institutions, the fundraising environment and other revenue streams continue to pose challenges in this current economic climate. In particular, income from our endowment has flattened, the average visitor contribution at the door is lower, and public sector operating support has fallen,” Campbell said. “Since the average cost to the Museum of each visitor is $40, we believe it is fair and, above all, necessary, to increase recommended admission levels at this time.”
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010 the Met had 5.2 million visitors who paid a combined admission of $30.6 million. In addition, membership income for 2009-10 totaled $23.8 million, according to Met’s annual report. Met members always get free admission to the museum.
The Met is one of the city’s many suggested-admission museums and it never tacks on an extra fee for special exhibitions. However, the museum’s website urges: “To help cover the costs of special exhibitions, we ask that you please pay the full recommended amount.”
Statue of Liberty crown on track to close Nov. 1 for fixes
The crown, museum and pedestal of the Statue of Liberty remains on schedule to close Nov. 1 for renovations, a National Park Service spokeswoman today confirmed to NewYorkology, and only a handful of tickets remain on sale for dates before Lady Liberty has a little work done.
The statue, which will celebrate its 125th birthday on October 28 this year, will reopen to the public in September 2012, said Jane Ahern the Chief of Public Affairs for the Statue of Liberty National Monument.
The steps up to the crown closed after Sept. 11, 2001 and only reopened Juy 4, 2009 with strict limits on the number of people allowed up the narrow double-helix staircase. The upcoming construction was first announced in May 2009.
The request for proposals, which remains out to bid until July 8, calls for new stairs, a new elevator and wheelchair lift, new security system and other elements. The National Park Service was criticized well before the Sept. 11 terror attacks that the stairs packed with tourists would be difficult to evacuate in an emergency.
When the interior portions of the statue close Nov. 1, the remainder of Liberty Island will still be open to visitors. “Since the work is being done inside, views of Lady Liberty from land and sea will remain unobstructed,” the National Park Service states on its website, which points out that 70 percent of current visitors to the island do not reserve tickets to see the museum inside the statue or travel to the crown.
On Wednesday, the Asia Society opened “New York Photographs,” a collection of 227 photographs taken by Ai when he lived in the East Village from 1983 to 1993.
Previously on view in China, the exhibition includes scenes of riots in Tompkins Square Park, drag queens at Wigstock and Chinese artists and intellectuals including Chen Kaige and Xu Bing. The pictures will be on view through Aug. 14.
His “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads” have been prominently displayed at the Pulitzer Fountain in front of The Plaza hotel since May. Ai was originally scheduled to attend the exhibition’s debut, which was instead opened in his absence by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Brooklyn Museum cancels 'Art in the Streets' exhibition
For the second time within a week, the Brooklyn Museum is making a painful budget cut, this time cancelling the upcoming exhibition of “Art in the Streets,” the first major United States museum show on the history of graffiti and street art.
“This is an exhibition about which we were tremendously enthusiastic, and which would follow appropriately in the path of our Basquiat and graffiti exhibitions in 2005 and 2006, respectively. It is with regret, therefore, that the cancellation became necessary due to the current financial climate,” Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman said in a statement today announcing the cancellation. “As with most arts organizations throughout the country, we have had to make several difficult choices since the beginning of the economic downturn three years ago.”
Currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, “Art in the Streets” had been scheduled to open at the Brooklyn Museum on March 30, 2012.
Brooklyn Museum ends late Friday hours, cites economy
For financial reasons, the Brooklyn Museum is scrapping its late-night Friday hours as of July 1, museum officials announced today.
“This change is a result of the challenging economic climate confronting many public institutions throughout New York City and the country,” according to the statement issued by the museum.
The museum will keep its Thursday night-owl hours, staying open until 10 p.m. with additional programming. On other nights, the museum closes at 6 p.m.
The Target First Saturdays are unchanged and will still allow free admission and special program from 5 to 11 p.m. on the first Saturday of most months.
The Guggenheim will also be open and free, however “all ramps and some additional galleries of the museum are currently closed for installation and will reopen on June 24.” Art on view includes the Hugo Boss Prize-winning installation by Hans-Peter Feldmann.
Usually it’s big news when a museum picks up and moves to a new location. That’s not always the case for the Waterfront Museum, which is housed in the red Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge No. 79. Normally docked in Red Hook, on Friday afternoon it was spotted floating past the Statue of Liberty, headed for a weekend trip to the Riverdale Riverfest.
Built in 1914, the barge was one of thousands used to move cargo from shore to shore across the harbor. The last of its kind still floating, Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge No. 79 was salvaged in 1985 for $1 and restored to its current state. The barge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
