Who Takes Care of New York?

About

Queens Museum is pleased to announce Who Takes Care of New York? opening September 12 in the Community Partnership Gallery. This exhibition explores the variety of civic groups that exist and thrive in New York City, and the ways that they care for and support their local environments. Displayed through maps, art, and storytelling, this exhibition aims to empower visitors with an understanding of their capacity to make lasting changes in their neighborhoods. 

A public reception opens the exhibition on Thursday, September 12, from 6 - 8PM. Who Takes Care of New York? continues through September 29, including a series of public events expanding on themes presented within the gallery. A full list of programs and events are available on the Who Takes Care of New York? homepage.

Data, images, and narratives about stewardship in this show are drawn from the Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project (STEW-MAP), an applied research project of the USDA Forest Service. This community organizing tool can be applied to strengthen capacity, promote engagement with on-the-ground projects, and build more effective partnerships among stakeholders.

The exhibition will also feature four artists whose works align with the themes of community-based stewardship, civic engagement, and social infrastructure. 

Matthew Jensen will present a selection of photographs from his series The Forest Between: Street Trees and Stewardship in New York City, celebrating the myriad of ways city residents care for street trees and the spaces surrounding them. 

Magali Duzant’s new commission, Whole Queens Catalog takes inspiration from Stewart Brand’s late 60’s American counterculture magazine and product catalog (Whole Earth catalog). Duzant has gathered anecdotes, recipes, advice, and other wisdom from stewardship groups throughout Queens, which she will be making available to the public with a free publication. 

Julia Oldham’s project Undiscovered City developed out of her three-month residency with the New York City Urban Field Station in Queens. Based on a series of conversations with stewards throughout the city, Julia has photographed and digitally-collaged images, responding to future visions of New York City. These works respond in particular to climate change and transformations within the natural world. 

On September 15, a participatory performance by Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow will honor stewardship groups in the five boroughs whose work centers around food justice issues. Lyn-Kee-Chow will be joined by representatives from Edible Schoolyard NYC, La Familia Verde, Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center, and Sunnyside CSA. These four organizations serving The Bronx, Brooklyn, Harlem and Queens will be highlighted for their projects organized by and supporting New York City’s communities of color and immigrant populations. 

On September 21, a panel discussion entitled How We See Stewardship invites the public to engage in an interdisciplinary conversation including artistic, scientific, design, and community-based approaches to stewardship. Join us for a discussion on the power of images, data visualization, and storytelling to communicate the important role that stewards play in caring for and shaping our city. The conversation will be moderated by Lindsay Campbell (USDA Forest Service, STEW-MAP).

Who Takes Care of New York? is organized by the NYC Urban Field Station, a partnership between USDA Forest Serviceresearchers (Lindsay Campbell; Michelle Johnson; Laura Landau; Erika Svendsen), NYC Parks (Caitlin Boas), and the Natural Areas Conservancy, with a mission to improve quality of life in urban areas by conducting, supporting, and communicating research about social-ecological systems and natural resource management; Pratt Institute’s Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative, SAVI (Jessie Braden; Can Sucuoğlu; Case Wyse; Josephina Matteson; Zachary Walker; Lidia Henderson), a multi-disciplinary mapping research lab and service center within Pratt Institute that focuses on using geospatial analysis and data visualization to understand NYC communities; and Independent Curator, Christina Freeman.