The subject of how much government can and should invest in infrastructure and public works is a hot topic of debate, especially now. Such conversations often point back to the era of the New Deal when the federal government channeled our tax monies to local investments and funded and built much of New York City’s […]
The Essex Market opened on January 9, 1940 as part of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s “war on pushcarts.”
In the second half of the twentieth century, particularly during the city’s fiscal crisis of the 1970s, the East Village experienced high rates of crime and drug use, and a number of its buildings were abandoned by private property owners and the city government. During this period, cultural and arts organizations began to repopulate these […]
October, the month when we mark Columbus Day, is also Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month. That combined with the recent celebrations around the 125th anniversary of Veniero’s inspires a closer look at the East Village’s own historic Little Italy, centered around First Avenue near the beloved pastry shop and cafe. While not nearly as famous […]
Theater for The New City (TNC) was founded in 1970 and has served its community with a wide variety of programming for nearly fifty years. TNC has premiered nearly one thousand new American plays and won more than forty OBIE Awards. Co-Founder Crystal Field has led the incredible institution since its founding. And on June 6th, […]
Over the past 28 years, GVSHP has honored the unique and outstanding people, organizations, places, and business that make the Village what it is with our Village Awards. You can RSVP to this year’s June 6th Awards Ceremony here. This year we will be honoring an amazing group of awardees, each with an incredible story:
James and Karla Murray are influential artists, small business advocates, and 2015 GVSHP Regina Kellerman Village Awardees. They have captured and preserved scores of Village locales (and thousands of NYC locales). Over 80% of the businesses featured in their first book have gone out of business since its publication in 2008. Their photographs of these storefronts, and the […]
In 2015, the City Council passed legislation requiring the City to produce its first-ever comprehensive cultural plan: CreateNYC. CreateNYC is supposed to become a roadmap to guide the future of arts and culture in NYC. The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) and Hester Street Collaborative (HSC) are working together with artists, cultural organizations, New York City agencies, arts […]
As 2015 comes to a close and 2016 approaches, here is a look back at GVSHP’s public programs for 2015. In all, we produced or co-sponsored 60 programs that drew almost 5,000 attendees. Our programs consisted of slideshows, lectures, book talks, panel discussions, interviews, museum visits, walking tours, and other formats. We chose different venues […]
A while back on Off the Grid we wrote about some of our favorite theaters. Theater, performance spaces, and the arts have all always been an important part of the Village, East Village, and NoHo’s cultural heritage and built environment. And last week, as part of our free public programs, we started a series about theaters […]
On April 8, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act. This act granted the President the authority to establish programs such as the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration, later renamed the Work Projects Administration) to combat the Great Depression. There are many great examples of the W.P.A.’s efforts throughout the Village and East Village.
There are some people who can make great changes, come up with unique and far-reaching ideas, or create institutions that attain legendary status, yet keep a low profile themselves. By now everyone associates Halloween in Greenwich Village with the annual Village Halloween Parade, an event that draws 2 million people to the 6th Avenue corridor […]
Two weeks ago, Off the Grid featured a notice announcing the lighting of the tree in Tompkins Square Park. At this year’s lighting ceremony on December 9th, a plaque was also unveiled that details the history of the tree, and how its annual lighting is a memorial to the devastation of the AIDS epidemic on […]
The East Village is renowned for its avant-garde, Off-Off Broadway theaters. One of the great examples is the Theater for the New City. Founded in 1971 by Crystal Field, George Bartenieff, Lawrence Kornfeld, and Theo Barnes, TNC was an offshoot of the Judson Poets Theater. Then-Mayor John Lindsay had recently given a speech envisioning a […]
