Opening ‘Windows on the Bowery’ to Appreciate its Cultural Significance
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It’s high time the Bowery receives its due and proper. Grassroots preservationists at the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors implore you to stop, observe, and appreciate the former Native American footpath and onetime boulevard of broken dreams. “Windows on the Bowery,” their new visual walking exhibit, premieres today.
The ambitious undertaking essentially serves as a portal to the rich cultural significance of the Bowery. It’s a creative effort some three years in the making that “highlights remarkable people, events, buildings, and achievements associated with particular addresses” along the Bowery. The ultimate goal is awareness that might help ebb the tide of destruction we’ve seen here in recent years. You see, the thoroughfare is not landmarked, even though it’s recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.
As previously reported, poster-sized placards rife with location-based information will reside in their respective Bowery windows, from Chatham to Cooper Square. Each one being a window into the past. (Get it?) In total, there are sixty-four panels (18×24 inches) containing histories penned by eighteen notable historians and researchers (Eric Ferrara, Joyce Mendelsohn, Dan Barry, Kerri Culhane, et al). Hundreds of historical images are also included.
But there’s more. In addition to the display at the Bowery locations, a full exhibition of all the posters is planned for the western windows of the Cooper Union building, as well as inside the landmark HSBC bank branch at 58 Bowery.
We’re told that the project should remain in place for several months, at least.
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