Extended through February: Celebrate the James Baldwin Centennial with Our Interactive Public Artwork

Extended for Black History Month! Village Preservation and The New School have installed a special installation celebrating the centennial of the birth of renowned writer and activist James Baldwin. This large-scale commemorative display can be found in the window at 70 Fifth Avenue at 13th Street — take a look!
The installation, designed by Penny Hardy of PSNewYork and commissioned by Village Preservation, features a dynamic graphic and interactive components that invite viewers to engage with Baldwin’s work and ideas, encouraging dialogue around his relevance in today’s societal context. The public can scan the embedded code in the graphic to activate the interactive elements.
Village Preservation has previously celebrated Baldwin’s life, legacy, and connection to Greenwich Village with the installation of a memorial plaque marking his former home at 81 Horatio Street, and with its interactive VILLAGE VOICES multimedia art installation. Village Preservation had worked in partnership with The New School to honor the history of 70 Fifth Avenue as a place of enormous significance to Black and civil rights history as the former headquarters of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, and home of The Crisis Magazine, W.E.B. DuBois’ trailblazing publication and the first magazine in America for Black readers, including installing a plaque commemorating its history in 2022.