Arsenal Gallery
The Arsenal Gallery is located at 64th Street and Fifth Avenue inside Central Park, Third Floor of the Arsenal Building. Gallery hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. (Closed municipal holidays.) Admission is free.
Current and Upcoming Exhibits
April 23 – June 19, 2008
Celebrating Greensward: The Plan for Central Park, 1858-2008
This exhibition is timed to mark the 150th anniversary of an enduring document, the Greensward Plan for Central Park, by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. The large–scale original drawing, which determined the contours of the world´s premier park, a unique and influential work of landscape art, will be on rare public display. The singular vision and genius of Olmsted and Vaux was a plan that masterfully blended formal, pastoral and picturesque regions to create unendingly variable vistas, and to create a democratic park for the city that would encourage use by all New Yorkers and visitors to the metropolis.
The exhibition illustrates the story of the park history and varied uses, as well as its decline, restoration and revival through a unique and groundbreaking partnership forged in 1980 between the City and the Central Park Conservancy.
Past Exhibits
March 10 – April 10, 2008
Austen at the Arsenal
Alice Austen (1866 - 1952) was one of America´s earliest and most prolific female photographers (producing images as early as 1878), a landscape designer (founder and first president of the Staten Island Garden Club), a master tennis player, and the first woman on Staten Island to own a car, which she knew how to fix when it broke down. Austen never married; instead she spent fifty years with Gertrude Tate, her longtime companion. A rebel, Austen broke away from the ties of her Victorian environment to create her own independent life.
This show of Austen´s photographs includes both newly-discovered works and old favorites by Austen. The exhibition is organized by the Alice Austen House Museum, a member of NYC Parks and Recreation´s Historic House Trust.
Image: Alice Austen, Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, ca. 1890. Courtesy of the Alice Austen House Museum.
February 1-29, 2008
Celebrating Black History
This exhibition features colorful handmade quilts as well as paintings, drawings, collage, fiber arts, ceramics, and photographs by Parks & Recreation employees, retirees, and participants at the City's recreation centers. The show is organized by Parks & Recreation's Ebony Society Black History committee.
January 7 – 30, 2008
A Salute to Queens Parks
This exhibition, a collaboration of the New York City Parks & Recreation and The Queens Courier, features 50 photographs of Queens parks taken by local residents. Winners in three categories—Nature & Landscape, Places & Landmarks, and People & Individuals, along with overall Grand, Second, and Third Place winners are on display. The photographs reflect the beauty and diversity of the people, the neighborhoods, and the parks for which the borough is so proud.
The exhibit is simultaneously on display at the Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadows Corona Park through February 3, 2008. The photographs will also be published in A Salute to Queens Parks: A Photo Book.
The exhibit is sponsored by Con Edison, New York Community Bank, Olympic Camera and Video, and Parkway Hospital.
Image: Oakland Lake, Spiro Fourniotis, 2007.