New Place Marking Signs in the Lower East Side
Dear Friends,
We’re happy to announce the installation of our new “place marking” signs. Print out our map, take the F train to the Lower East Side, and take a look! Your Guide to the Lower East Side includes 28 new signs at six sidewalk locations that celebrate people, places, and community life on the Lower East Side. With photographs and text in five languages, these place markers weave personal stories and cherished memories directly into the landscape, often right where the stories took place.
A Yiddish-speaking type-setter, Puerto Rican garment worker, and World’s-Fair-showgirl-turned-photographer are a few of the New Yorkers who tell tales of struggle and achievement in Your Guide to the Lower East Side. The signs reveal the rich and diverse layers of human experience that make the neighborhood so distinctive. They transform the participants’ stories into a legacy for all who pass by.
For the map and online version of the catalog, go to the Place Matters website. A printed catalog is available as well. Also find here information about our longer-running “place marking” initiative, including a virtual exhibit of the place-marking designs developed by finalists in our 2003 Ideas Competition.
The new signs will be displayed at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, PS 42, St. Teresa’s Church, Seward Park, Straus Square, and St. Augustine’s Church from September 2007 through February 2008, and beyond.
Colored bright red, sized to be seen, and shaped to catch attention, the signs call out from the busy streetscape, whether hanging in windows, mounted on fences and poles, or standing on their own two legs. Each one is a separate piece of art incorporating photos, text, and hand-drawn illustration — created by graphic designer John Wong, installation designer Marisa Yiu, and writers Marci Reaven and Chris Neville.
We extend our many thanks to all the marking project’s participants and supporters, including City of New York / Parks & Recreation, the E.H.A. Foundation, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and all of our Place Matters funders.
Your Guide to the Lower East Side is produced by Place Matters, a project of City Lore and the Municipal Art Society, and co-sponsored by the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.
Sincerely,
Marci Reaven and Chris Neville, Place Matters ([email protected])