Join us for a very special event on Saturday, June 22, from 6:00-9:00 p.m.!
Did you know that the first ticker tape parade occurred in New York City during the Statue of Liberty’s dedication in 1886? Curious about what, exactly, ticker tape is? Join us on Saturday, June 22 at the City Reliquary to learn more about the past and present of parades in NYC! We’ll hear from Andy Breslau of the Downtown Alliance, which provides improvement services for lower Manhattan, including the famed “Canyon of Heroes” on Broadway.
If you’ve never qualified to be part of an official ticker tape parade (or even if you have), you can enjoy the experience in our ticker tape photobooth! Souvenir Polaroid photos will be $5.
This ticker tape event is FREE with admission to the City Reliquary Museum.
The City Reliquary is proud to present The Art Neighborhood’s 10th Anniversary installation! Throughout June and July, the Neighborhood will grow in our gallery space and be populated with action figures made by our visitors. Come watch the installation take shape during our open hours, and join us for action figure making workshops on Saturday, June 15 and Saturday, July 13!
The Art Neighborhood is an interactive and collaborative art installation created by Brooklyn artist Lisa Ludwig. It depicts an alternate universe shantytown populated by superhero action figures built by community participants over the past 10 years.
Built from found materials, the world of the Art Neighborhood reflects the themes of struggle, beauty, hope, and transformation. It embodies the call to action necessary to address problems of poverty and conflict. Visitors participate by creating action figures – of themselves or alter egos – to add to the Art Neighborhood community installation with the understanding that artistic expression is one of many ways to answer a call to action.
Lisa will begin building this incarnation of the Art Neighborhood at the Reliquary on Thursday, May 30. Everyone is invited to come watch its progress and to create their own action figure to populate the town! Action figure workshops will take place on June 15 and July 13. The complete set of action figures, built by artists, children, musicians, activists, and museum-goers over the past decade, will be on rotating view in the front gallery space.
If you are a past participant in the Art Neighborhood, we especially hope to see you over the course of the exhibition, and hope you’ll add to your character’s story.
Film Screening & Reception: Friday, May 17th, 7 PM
Patrick O’Hare is a photographer and filmmaker who explores the architecture and landscape of the modern world. His films evoke that strange language of merging and omission that allows reality to slip and hints at the invisible. Through the cracks, something startles and vanishes – the shape-shifting riddle of inside and outside.
On May 17, the City Reliquary will screen three of O’Hare’s recent films: Chimera, New York City Landscapes; The Highlands; and The Ecstasy of Ruins. Shot in 2018 in New York City, the Hudson River Valley, and upstate New York respectively, these works explore the natural and manufactured elements of our landscape, blurring the line between permanence and the evanescent to form a more elusive state of being. A discussion with the artist and reception will follow the screening. Chimera, New York City Landscapes will be on continuous view in the City Reliquary’s gallery in the following weeks.
The May 17 screening is free with late night admission to the City Reliquary Museum, a suggested donation of $7.
Patrick O’Hare’s photographs have been exhibited at MoMA PS1, Parsons School of Design, and Rhode Island School of Design. He has screened his films at UnionDocs in Brooklyn, New York and the Unseen Film Festival in Denver, Colorado.
Synopsis:
Chimera, New York Landscapes (2018). HD, Silent, 18:00
A city as hybrid of public and private, modern efficiency and timeless elements, projected through light and weather, refracted and collaged.
The Highlands (2018). HD, Silent, 18:41
A series of Hudson Valley landscapes, the film asks what a river and its environs evoke as an ancient conduit to a present state of mind.
The Ecstasy of Ruins (2018). HD, Silent, 19:27
The quiet geography of upstate New York reveals an architecture of melancholy and a twilight civilization writ large.
Alert readers of the City Reliquary’s blog and recent Reliquary visitors are no doubt familiar with author Sarah Murray’s Ghanaian fantasy coffin in the shape of the Empire State Building, now on view in our Making A Museum exhibit. If you’d like to learn more about how that coffin came to be – and about more fascinating funerary traditions from around the world – be sure to attend her talk at the Reliquary on Friday, March 22 at 7:00 p.m.!
Ms. Murray will share stories and photos from her book Making An Exit, an exploration of the extraordinary creativity unleashed when we seek to dignify the dead. Her research took her around the world and brought her to create a unique plan for her own eventual send-off.
The event will be free with admission to the City Reliquary Museum! We’ll be open special late-night hours from 6-9 p.m. so there will be plenty of time to check out all our exhibits and new additions before and after Ms. Murray’s talk at 7 p.m. Refreshments will be available by donation.
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The City Reliquary’s Community Collections showcase provides a place for ordinary New Yorkers to display the carefully curated objects of their devotion, be they quirky, everyday, strange, or sublime. Our current exhibitor, Jennifer Rice, collects vintage confetti and related ephemera from all over the world. She was first inspired to start collecting when she learned that workers renovating NYC’s famed Rainbow Room found confetti from the 1940s beneath the rotating dance floor.
Confetti celebrations have a special place in New York City history. The first ever ticker-tape parade happened on Broadway in 1886 when NY Stock Exchange traders watching the parade celebrating the dedication of the Statue of Liberty spontaneously tossed ticker tape from their offices onto the crowd below.
And of course, the biggest confetti event in the country is New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Did you know that all the confetti is tossed by hand? The man who makes it all happen is Treb Heining, whose company has handled confetti drops at major events like the Super Bowl, Olympics, and Academy Awards. He’ll be in New York to run theconfetti operation at Times Square for the 27th consecutive year, and will make an appearance at the City Reliquary to talk about his work!
Join us on Friday, December 28, at 7:00 p.m. to learn what it takes to be the Confetti King! Entry is included with Museum admission, and is of course free for members. We’ll have the Museum open special late-night hours with plenty of time to see all our festive exhibits.
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In the 1920s and 30s, Brooklyn was home to more than 100 seltzer bottlers and distributors. Customers seeking the digestive health benefits of filtered, carbonated New York City water could get it delivered to their homes in hand-blown glass bottles. The City Reliquary’s permanent collection includes a number of these vintage bottles, etched with logos from companies based throughout the borough – from A&M to Windy’s, Simon Finkelstein to Standard Carbonic.
We’re bringing our seltzer bottle collection to life with a special tour of the last seltzer bottler in Brooklyn – Gomberg Seltzer Works in Canarsie,, a.k.a. the Brooklyn Seltzer Boys. They do it all the old-fashioned way, from carbonation and filling each bottle by
hand, to home delivery of vintage siphon bottles in wooden crates. Attendees will learn how seltzer is made and about the delivery business past and present, concluding with a taste of Brooklyn’s iconic seltzer-based treat, the egg cream. (Made with Brooklyn’s own Fox’s syrup, naturally!)
Our 11 a.m. seltzer works tour is now SOLD OUT! But we’ve just added a second tour on December 15, 2018, at 12:30 p.m. Tickets are available now for our second tour! Space is very limited, so don’t wait to sign up! City Reliquary Members receive discounts on all our tours and events. Join today for special access to tours inspired by the Museum’s permanent collection of artifacts throughout 2019!
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Join us this Saturday, October 6, at 1:00 p.m. for a walking tour of South Williamsburg! Our guide will be Adrienne Onofri, author of Walking Brooklyn.
Highlights of the route include places associated with significant eras in Williamsburg’s history and its industrial and brewing heritage, as well as landmark civic, commercial, and religious buildings. The tour will last approximately two hours and end off-site, near the Williamsburg Bridge.
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Join The City Reliquary for Summer of Skate – an outdoor summer screening series featuring films and documentaries that celebrate the roller disco movement.
Known as the “World’s Only Roller Boogie Documentary”, this film by Terrance Mitchell features legendary Empire skaters “Pat the Cat” Richardson, Vincent “Venzerelli” Smith, and Inez Daniels.
This special “Summer of Skate” screening takes place in conjunction with the City Reliquary’s current exhibit, Empire Skate: The Birthplace of Roller Disco.
The Reliquary will be open late! Price of museum entry includes admission to the film: $7 general, free for members.
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Join FilmIndie Cinema and The City Reliquary for Summer of Skate – an outdoor summer screening series featuring films and documentaries that celebrate the roller disco movement.
On Friday, August 31st, we’ll be taking it down to the A with a screening of the classic 2006 coming-of-age film, ATL. The film follows four friends as they navigate challenges and prepare for life after high school. All of their experiences come full circle at their local rollerskating rink, Cascade.
Join The City Reliquary for Summer of Skate – an outdoor summer screening series featuring films and documentaries that celebrate the roller disco movement.
August’s film is Tyrone Dixon’s premiere documentary: 8 Wheels & Some Soul Brotha Music, which travels to roller rinks across the country to present urban voices of roller skating in the USA. Run time 1 hour 14 minutes.
Summer of Skate films highlight documentaries and feature films related to roller skating culture. They also provide late-night access to the City Reliquary’s special exhibit, Empire Skate: The Birthplace of Roller Disco.
The screening is FREE with regular museum entry. Drinks from our generous sponsors at Brooklyn Brewery will be available by donation.
Doors are at 7. Films are screened at 8 pm. The museum will remain open until 10 pm.
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