Village Preservation recently announced, “Village Voices,” an engaging outdoor exhibition of shadowboxes displayed throughout New York City’s Greenwich Village, the East Village and NoHo that celebrates people, places and moments from our neighborhoods cultural history featuring photographs, artifacts and recorded narration by John Leguizamo, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, and Edward Norton that will provide insight to the neighborhood’s cultural heritage.
Open from September 13 to October 13, 2021, the exhibition is a tribute to the community and continues its long mission of preserving the architecture, culture, and artistic nature of the neighborhoods through advocacy and education.
“We are thrilled to launch our inaugural art installation, “Village Voices,” as this year’s annual benefit to celebrate the history of these New York City neighborhoods in an entertaining and interactive way,” explains Andrew Berman, Executive Director of Village Preservation. “Our mission is to protect the sense of place, human scale, and diverse, open, and progressive heritage that define these unique communities, and to illustrate why this history is so important to all New Yorkers.”
Village Preservation tapped Penny Hardy, founding principal of PS New York, to design twenty shadowboxes. These exhibits will be displayed in historically significant locales, exhibiting combines of artifacts, photographs, documents, and more – all representative of that specific place. For example, the space where Billie Holiday first performed “Strange Fruit” or exactly where activist Jane Jacobs stood to protest Robert Moses’ plan to tear down Washington Square Park to build a highway. Additionally, notable Village residents such as John Leguizamo, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, and Edward Norton lend their voices for the narration of each shadowbox via QR code in order to share the powerful stories of the neighborhoods.
“The Village Preservation never fails to inspire, advocate, and educate through thoughtful, creative initiatives,” says Leslie Mason, member of Village Preservation’s Board of Trustees and Benefit Chair of ‘Village Voices’. “The exhibit draws on the neighborhood’s diverse and creative nature by encouraging those to gather around a piece of art, experience it, discuss it and share ideas. We are creating salons en plein air for everyone’s participation.”
While “Villages Voices” will be open to the public from September 13 to October 13, 2021, Village Preservation will host a ticketed Benefit Day on Sunday, September 12 to launch the installation and raise money to continue its mission to advocate, celebrate, document the historic significance of our neighborhoods. This event will include an exclusive tour and preview of the exhibition sites with printed catalogues, audio guides and live performances followed by an outdoor Gala event at Jefferson Market Garden.
Founding sponsors for both “Village Voices” and the Benefit Day event are Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Bourlet Art Logistics, Douglas Elliman, Rob and Nina Kaufelt, MADE Architects and Fred Wistow.
“Village Voices” will honor the following trailblazers of New York City’s Greenwich Village, the East Village and NoHo neighborhoods:
- Berenice Abbott (artist)
- Billie Holiday (musician)
- Bob Dylan (musician)
- Charlie Parker (musician)
- E.E. Cummings (writer)
- Elizabeth Blackwell (healer)
- Jackson Pollock (artist)
- James Baldwin (writer)
- Jane Jacobs (activist)
- Joan Mitchell (artist)
- John Sloan (artist)
- John William Draper (photoscientist)
- Larry Kramer (activist)
- Lorraine Hansberry (writer)
- Margaret Wise Brown (writer)
- Martha Graham (choreographer)
- Oliver Sacks (healer)
- Patti Smith (musician)
- Robert Rauschenberg (artist)
- Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (place)
- WH Auden (writer)
To purchase tickets for the Benefit Day event, please visit:https://www.villagepreservation.org/events/village-voices-benefit/
To learn more about “Village Voices” and its gracious sponsors, please visit:https://www.villagepreservation.org/events/village-voices-annual-benefit/
