About this listing
Colorful community art project
Place Details
Borough : Manhattan
Neighborhood : Morningside Heights
Place Matters Profile
By Breanne Scanlon
National history and public art intersect at the General Grant National Memorial in Riverside Park in the form of seventeen mosaic benches. The colorful benches wrap around the exterior of the building, providing a stark contrast to the austere mausoleum. Since their creation in 1972, the benches and their relation to Grant's Tomb have been flashpoints for debate about the role and value of public art.
After serving as President of the United States from 1869 to 1877, Ulysses S. Grant retired to New York City. He died of throat cancer in 1885, and the General Grant National Memorial, where he and his wife, Julia Dent Grant, are buried, was dedicated in 1897 at 122nd Street at Riverside Drive. In 1972, the National Park Service (NPS) and CITYarts, a local arts organization, jointly funded the creation of seventeen continuous mosaic benches around the General Grant National Memorial, commonly known as the Grant's Tomb Mosaic Bench. The benches were produced
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By Breanne Scanlon
National history and public art intersect at the General Grant National Memorial in Riverside Park in the form of seventeen mosaic benches. The colorful benches wrap around the exterior of the building, providing a stark contrast to the austere mausoleum. Since their creation in 1972, the benches and their relation to Grant's Tomb have been flashpoints for debate about the role and value of public art.
After serving as President of the United States from 1869 to 1877, Ulysses S. Grant retired to New York City. He died of throat cancer in 1885, and the General Grant National Memorial, where he and his wife, Julia Dent Grant, are buried, was dedicated in 1897 at 122nd Street at Riverside Drive. In 1972, the National Park Service (NPS) and CITYarts, a local arts organization, jointly funded the creation of seventeen continuous mosaic benches around the General Grant National Memorial, commonly known as the Grant's Tomb Mosaic Bench. The benches were produced by CITYarts, created by professional artists and community volunteers of all ages, and led by artist Pedro Silva.
Founded in 1968, CITYarts' mission focuses on connecting the children and youth of New York with professional artists to create public works of art that address civic and social issues. Pedro Silva, a Chilean artist living in New York City, was chosen by CITYarts to lead the mosaic project, which involved many hundreds of community volunteers and commemorated the centennial anniversary of the opening of Yellowstone Park, the first National Park, during Grant's presidency. The NPS and CITYarts hoped that a public arts project would not only bring together diverse members of the Morningside Heights neighborhood, but also put a stop to graffiti and vandalism at Grant's Tomb. A Parks Service official later commented that, "The thing to do at Grant's Tomb was not to build a high fence and hire extra guards, but rather to give the community up there pride of ownership of the site."
Through intensive workshops, the community came up with images and ideas that were incorporated into the benches, which were inspired by the style of Antonio Gaudi, a Spanish sculptor and architect. Between 1972 and 1974, Silva, six professional artists, and large numbers of volunteers constructed the benches from iron rods, wire mesh, and poured concrete. They laid mosaic tiles over the framework. The free-form benches extend for more than 350 ft. around the sides and back of the memorial, and are set back about 25 ft. from the building. Silva and the volunteers created a variety of mosaic designs, including a portrait of General Grant, depictions of his travels and accomplishments, and what one writer called an "energetic medley" of other images, including an elephant in a jungle, a New York taxicab, bouquets of flowers, and a flooding fire hydrant.
It was the largest public art project in the U.S. at the time, but not everyone supported it. Some Civil War buffs and architectural historians called the benches inappropriate and disrespectful to the Presidential monument and tomb. A 1979 New York Times article quoted Ralph G. Newman, president of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, as saying, "It's like having a roller-coaster ride running up and down the Lincoln Memorial. It may be fun, but it's not history." The architecture critic for The New York Times, Paul Goldberger, defended the benches the same year, writing that they provided "a delightful counterpoint to the hopelessly solemn architecture of Grant's Tomb" and that they were "surely Manhattan's finest piece of folk art of our time."
In 1979, the NPS created a task force to evaluate the compatibility of the site with the benches. Several local politicians and Columbia University professors formed a committee to defend the benches, and the NPS chose not to remove them. In 1980, CITYarts gave the benches a brief touch-up.
In 1994, Tsipi Ben-Haim, the fairly new director who restarted CITYarts in 1989 after a two-year hiatus (changing the name from Cityarts Workshop), led an initiative to restore the benches to their original state. She invited the original volunteers -- the youth of 1972 -- to come back with their children. The participants not only restored the original pieces, they also created a new one, thereby bridging the generations and reactivating the area as an artistic space.
Then, in 1997, the NPS announced that as part of a large renovation project for Grant’s Tomb's centennial anniversary, it intended to take out the benches and move them somewhere else in the city. Michael Gotkin, a member of the Morningside Heights Historic District Committee, led a coalition of community members to protest the threatened removal. New York Senator Franz Leichter lent his support to the cause, and they were able to successfully halt the demolition of the benches.
Today, the mosaic benches still line the area around Grant's Tomb. Currently, CITYarts is raising funds to underwrite a large-scale renovation plan. Pedro Silva and other artists will hopefully resume their roles for the new restoration, and CITYarts intends to involve the original community volunteers, as well as new Morningside Heights residents, artists, and young people currently working with CITYarts on other art projects in the city. CITYarts is also creating a brochure to explain the history of both Grant's Tomb and the mosaic benches to site visitors.
Tsipi Ben-Haim -- still the organization's executive and artistic director -- told us that the project achieved its original purpose of stopping almost all vandalism and graffiti at the historic site. Such projects bring other benefits, too, she said, as in "giving our youth a visual voice and the opportunity to take an active role in shaping their own future."
Sources
Ronald Fleming and Renata Von Tscharner, Placemakers (Harcourt, Brace, Janovich, 1987)
New York Times: "Benches at Grant's Tomb Getting Mosaic Touch," Sept. 12, 1973; "Skirmish at Grant's Tomb Over Benches," July 23, 1979; "Design Notebook, " Paul Goldberger, Aug, 16, 1979; "Mosaic Benches Face Unseating at Grant's Tomb," Mar. 30, 1997; "Dust-Up Over Center for Grant's Tomb," Aug. 1, 2004.
Interview with Michael Gotkin by Breanne Scanlon for Place Matters, Apr, 14, 2008
E-mails from Tsipi Ben-Haim, April 2008
Websites: CITYarts (www.cityarts.org/funding.html) & the National Park Service website for General Grant National Memorial (http://www.nps.gov/gegr/)
[Posted by Place Matters, April 2008]
