Music plays in and out, art spills beyond museum walls, laughter echoes in comedy clubs, the city has gained new public spaces (although the police have begun to close down, not without creating controversy Washington Square at 10 p.m.) and although we will have to wait until September 14 to wait for all the curtains on Broadway to rise, some like Bruce Springsteen return earlier (on June 26, only to be vaccinated with Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen). New Yorkers have also recovered the Summerstage in Central Park and this August they will have their date with Shakespeare in the park.
Although nearly 46% of the city’s population has not received a dose of the vaccine, practically all restrictions have already been lifted and cultural life flourishes again after the year of the pandemic, just like Yayoi Kusama’s works collected under the title ‘Cosmic nature’ that make the Bronx Botanical Garden one of the must-see destinations this summer.
Museums such as MoMA, with the summer magnets of Cézanne and Alexander Calder, and the Metropolitan They have started to register their highest attendance numbers in a year. They return, received as a blessing, the queues to enter to see Alex Da Corte’s installation on the roof of the Met or the Alice Neel exhibition, which will be replaced in July by the one dedicated to the Medici and one that will underline the work of women behind behind the camera.
It is also the summer of Jackson Pollock, of whom the Guggenheim exhibits ‘Mural’, his greatest work until August 30; from KWAS at the Brooklyn Museum; and Julie Mehretu (until August 8) at the Whitney, very close to where Little Island is located, the floating park that is the last private contribution to the public spaces of the city and that can be visited free of charge, reserving a ticket if you plan to go after 12 noon.
Public art installations dot dozens of blocks in Riverside Park, have turned Lincoln Center plaza into a green meadow (thanks to Mimi Lien’s ‘The green’ installation) and Madison Square Park into the ‘Ghost Forest’ devised by Maya Lin. And 2021 will also be, again, the summer of culture in the parks.
Shakespeare in the Park returns to Central Park, with more limited capacity this year and a distribution of free tickets this time digital, Shakespeare in the Park, this time with a version of ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ with an all-black cast. And it is also the park where the mayor, Bill de Blasio, has commissioned Clive Davis to organize a mega-concert for August 21. ANDThe poster is not yet known but the producer, who is already working with Live Nation, wants to include “eight iconic stars” in that three-hour event that 60,000 people will be able to see live, with the majority of free tickets and 70% reserved for those who have received the vaccine, an audience that will have a separate space from that of the non-inoculated.
Audiovisual lovers also have dates. They can go to the new shop dedicated to Harry Potter or, in exchange for 45 dollars, enjoy the ‘Friends experience’. Another option is to take a bike or the subway, which runs 24 hours again, and head to Queens to immerse yourself in the Museum of the Moving Image in Stanley Kubrick’s creative process that allowed ‘2001 to emerge. A space odyssey ‘or in the universe of the Muppets, the Muppets, in another exhibition dedicated to Jim Henson. IDOYA NOAIN
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