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CITYarts Inc. records

Call Number

MS 3096

Date

1969-2016, inclusive

Creator

CITYarts Inc. (New York, N.Y.)
Cityarts Workshop, Inc. (New York, NY)

Extent

63 Linear feet in 61 boxes of various sizes + 5 flat file folders

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are primarily in English, but with the international reach of the organization, there are many in Hebrew and other languages.

Abstract

The collection includes records from CITYarts Inc. and its predecessor organization Cityarts Workshop. CITYarts is a nonprofit public arts and education organization that engages youth with professional artists in the creation of public art, including murals and mosaics. The collection is especially rich in its photographic documentation of CITYarts and Cityarts Workshop projects from 1969 into the 2010s. There is much original artwork in the collection, including drawings from youth around the world as part of the Pieces for Peace project. Program administration files include those related to publicity, press coverage, and fundraising, among others.

Biographical / Historical

As stated on its website, CITYarts is a nonprofit public arts and education organization that engages youth with professional artists in the creation of public art, including murals and mosaics. The history of the organization traces back to 1968 and the formation of a community arts program under the leadership of Susan Shapiro-Kiok by the New York City Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs Administration. By 1971, the program had spun off to become Cityarts Workshop, which incorporated in 1974 as a non-profit. Cityarts Workshop sought to both directly help community groups produce art, particularly murals, that reflected the community's culture and wishes, and to act as an educational resource generally for communities wanting to produce their own murals. Based in lower Manhattan, Cityarts Workshop initially focused its efforts mostly on its surrounding communities, including the Lower East Side and Chinatown, though it did occasional work elsewhere, notably with mosaic benches at Grant's Tomb. By the late 1970s, though, projects had commonly expanded to other Manhattan neighborhoods and other New York City boroughs. A 1980 inventory lists 31 murals on the Lower East Side and 22 murals in other New York areas. By the mid-1980s, well over 100 projects had been completed across the city, with murals ranging from themes of social justice to the movie, Star Wars.

It is unclear what may have formally happened with Cityarts Workshop in 1988-89; references typically say that it closed down then. In any case, in 1989 Tsipi Ben-Haim joined, or re-founded, the organization as Executive Director and its work continued, then and now under the name CITYarts Inc. While the present organization now points to 1989 as its founding year, that is a recent change from its prior datings to 1968, which is the date used throughout the documents in the collection at hand. Also, the organization's current (2021) count of over 330 completed projects includes those done by its predecessor entity from 1968-1988. (The collection includes a comprehensive list of projects through 2016; see Series I.)

CITYarts evolved in important ways under Ben-Haim's leadership. In 1995, she restructured the organization to focus on four programmatic areas: Community Identity Mural Program, Kids for Justice Mural Program, Young Minds Build Bridges Program, and the Windows of Opportunities Program. These programs remained in place through the 2010s and are reflected in the collection. Other programs also developed in later years, including Tribute to New York and New Yorkers in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and Global HeARTwarming, which builds an appreciation of nature and global warming. Within these overall programs, there are various projects. An important example of this, well-represented in the collection, is Pieces for Peace with Youth from Around the World, a project under the Young Minds Build Bridges Program. Pieces for Peace involves workshops in which youth from around the world form tile-size art works illustrating their concept of peace, selections of which are used in traveling exhibitions, an online mosaic wall, and Peace Walls, including those in Harlem, Karachi, Tel-Aviv, London, and Berlin.

(The above note was based on documents from the collection (see especially the various publicity pieces in Series III), CITYarts website, and other on-line sources.)

Arrangement

The collection is organized in 6 series:

Series I. Project Binders, 1969-2016

Series II. Pieces for Peace Project, 2004-2016

Series III. General Program Administration Files, 1970s-2016

Series IV. Audiovisual (RESTRICTED), 1974-2009

Series V. Artwork, Miscellaneous Photographs, and Other Visual Materials, 1970s-2011

Series VI. Leslie Bender Artworks (RESTRICTED), circa 1981

Scope and Contents

The collection primarily includes photographic documentation of CITYarts and Cityarts Workshop projects from 1969 into the 2010s. These are mostly slides and snapshots of murals and other artworks, and of the process of creating the artworks, held in binders organized by project. There are also photographs of opening events, benefits, and other organization activities.

Original artwork also comprises a substantial part of the collection. Much of this relates to the Pieces for Peace project, with submissions from school age students from around the world. Drawings of various murals or proposed murals are in the collection. One set of drawings, donated by the artist apart from the CITYarts records but included with the collection by N-YHS, are of murals by Leslie Bender.

The collection also holds various administrative records providing further context to the visual material. These include files of publicity and press coverage, fundraising efforts, such as benefits and sponsorships, subject reference files, volunteer logistics, and the like.

The collection holds over 200 videocassettes of CITYarts' projects, events and media coverage of them. These have not been reformatted and are restricted from use.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers. Most of the materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please contact manuscripts@nyhistory.org prior to your research visit to coordinate access. Keep in mind that it will take between two (2) and five (5) business days for collections to arrive, and you should plan your research accordingly.

Some of the material in the collection is restricted for conservation reasons (audiovisual in Series IV and artwork in Series VI). See those series for specifics.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation

With the exception of Series VI (see that series for citation), the collection should be cited as: CITYarts Inc. records, MS 3096, New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Most of the materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please contact manuscripts@nyhistory.org prior to your research visit to coordinate access. Keep in mind that it will take between two (2) and five (5) business days for collections to arrive, and you should plan your research accordingly.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of CITYarts Inc., 2016, with the exception of the material in Series VI. Series VI was a gift of Leslie Bender in 2021.

Collection processed by

Sydney Bebon and Larry Weimer

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:56 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

The collection was inventoried and a finding aid prepared by archivist Larry Weimer and intern Sydney Bebon of the Princeton Internships in Civic Service (PICS) program in July 2021. Minimal physical processing was done and so the collection remains in original binders, photographic slide and print enclosures, and folders as received from CITYarts in 2016. Digital and audiovisual content also remains in its original media.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024