As Democracy Falters, a New York Museum Champions Activism

The Museum of the City of New York in East Harlem will open the Puffin Foundation Center for Social Activism this fall. The center is dedicated to civic engagement, social justice, and the city’s history of political organizing. It will replace the Puffin Foundation Gallery for Social Activism, which opened in 2012 and houses the permanent rotating exhibition Activist New York. The Puffin Foundation, a nonprofit that funds artists and art organizations focused on marginalized groups, is providing an $8 million donation for the renovation and expansion. The center will debut with a new version of Activist New York installed during a brief closure beginning July 19. The museum will also offer exhibitions, public programs, and screenings.

"This fall, the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) in East Harlem will open the Puffin Foundation Center for Social Activism, dedicated to civic engagement, social justice, and the city's rich history as a hotbed of political organizing."

"The center will replace the museum's Puffin Foundation Gallery for Social Activism, which opened in 2012 and is home to the permanent rotating exhibition Activist New York. The namesake Puffin Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Perry Rosenstein that awards grants to artists and art organizations to tell the stories of marginalized groups, is funding the renovation and expansion with an $8 million donation, the second-largest in the museum's history."

""We're talking about a long historical arc here," Sarah Seidman, the museum's curator of social activism, told Hyperallergic in an interview. "Activists in New York have mobilized around a range of issues at various moments in time, all along the political spectrum. The unique juxtaposition of a diverse range of so many people in a fairly small physical footprint has created a lot of moments of unity or clashing, and we try to cover both of those things.""

"The Puffin Foundation Center for Social Activism will debut with a new version of Activist New York, which will be installed during a brief closure of the gallery beginning July 19. "It's thrilling as a way to both go broader and include more pieces from more movements," Seidman comme"

Read at Hyperallergic