CultureNOW | A Celebration of Culture & Community

Anne Cheek LaRose discusses Randy's Doughnuts and Googie architecture in Inglewood, CA.

The architect Lawrence Scarpa talks about the design of the new Animo Leadership High School. Compounding these issues is the school’s location, near Los Angeles International Airport and within a quarter mile of the 105 Freeway, adding noise and air quality to the list of concerns.

Jonathan Kuhn, Director of Arts and Antiquities of NYC Parks, sheds light on the John Ericsson sculpture in Battery Park. The sculpture depicts Ericsson, a Swedish-American inventor and engineer, who was important in revolutionizing maritime and military technology and travel. 

Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts & Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses the Monitor and Merrimac Monument, celebrating the life of John Ericsson. This statue honors the esteemed Swedish-American engineer and inventor John Ericsson (1803 - 1889), as well as the Monitor, the ironclad ship he designed. Created by the Italian-American sculptor, Antonio de Filippo (1900 - 1993), this sculpture was dedicated in 1938. The statue depicts a heroic male nude pulling a rope attached to a capstan, and symbolizes Ericsson's role in military-maritime technology, and honors the memory of the men of the Monitor.

Located at the southeast corner of Madison Square Park this forthright, bronze full-standing statue of political figure Roscoe Conkling (1829-1888) is by the distinguished artist John Quincy Adams Ward (1840-1910), and dates to 1893.

On March 12, 1888, while on his way to the New York Club at 25th Street, Conkling suffered severe exposure in Union Square, during the famous blizzard which gripped the city on that day. As a result his health rapidly declined, and he died on April 18th, 1888. Five years later friends of Conkling petitioned the Mayor and Park Board to erect a sculpture of him in Union Square. Park officials believed Conkling not of a stature to warrant placement of this work alongside existing sculptures in the park of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and the Marquis de Lafayette, but granted permission at the present location of the work.

Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts & Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses the statue of Balto, a famous Siberian husky responsible for delivering diphtheria antitoxin to the town of Nome, Alaska. 

The glowing bronze of this statue on a rock outcropping near the East Drive at 67th Street reflects the loving pats of countless children and adults who recall the story of a heroic dog. In January 1925, the city of Nome, Alaska experienced an outbreak of diphtheria. At that time, Nome had a population of 1,429 people and there was only enough antitoxin serum in distant Anchorage to treat about 300 people exposed to the disease. A train line did run over 325 miles from Anchorage to Nenana, the station closest to Nome, but Nome was icebound seven months out of the year. Alaska's two open-cockpit planes were not safe in the frigid and windy weather.

A relay of mushers and their dog-sled teams was the only way to deliver the fur-wrapped twenty-pound package of serum to the ailing community 674 miles from Nenana. The route followed the old Iditarod Trail used by mail drivers from Anchorage to Nome (now the route of the dog-sled championships). The 20 teams of over 200 dogs covered the frozen terrain at about six miles per hour, in blizzard conditions with temperatures of 50 degrees below zero. An international audience listened over their radios and read in their newspapers of the race to Nome. The last musher, Gunnar Kasson, and his team lead by Balto, a black and white Alaskan malamute, raced over the frozen tundra in only five days and seven hours - a world record time. Within days after the arrival of the serum, the epidemic, which had claimed five lives, was over.

Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts & Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses the Eleanor Roosevelt Monument in Riverside Park. The figure was sculpted by Jencks, the boulder and foot stone by Dwyer. The artwork consists of a figure (heroic scale) half-seated against a boulder, a circular foot stones, an earth pedestal encircled by a low wall, two inscribed pavers, and two plaques. The figure, lettering on pavers, and plaques are made of bronze, the foot stone of Belfast black granite, and the low wall and pavers of granite.

Mayor Abraham De Peyster (1657–1728) was born in New Amsterdam, now known as Manhattan. De Peyster came from a prosperous mercantile family. He was influential in the young city; he had many positions, including alderman, mayor, member of the king’s council, and acting governor. By the end of his life, De Peyster was allegedly one of the city’s wealthiest inhabitants. 

The sculpture has moved around several times in lower Manhattan.  It was originally in Bowling Green and then rested in Hanover Square till 2003.  Then it was removed and put into storage to make room for the British Memorial Garden.  It is currently in Thomas Paine Park.

Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts & Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses 'Puerto Rican Sun', by Rafael Ferrer, which celebrates Puerto Rican culture. The 25-foot-tall, brightly colored painted Cor-Ten steel archway, was dedicated at Fox Park on October 16, 1979.  The 12,000-pound sculpture, fabricated by Lippincott Inc., represents arching palm trees embracing the sun on its face, and the moon on its back.

Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts & Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses the John F. Kennedy bust in Grand Army Plaza. Neil Estern's bust of John F. Kennedy was first installed on May 31, 1965. When the Plaza underwent a major renovation in 2002, the bust was removed. On August 24, 2010, the bust was re-installed and rededicated in the Plaza.