The Rockefeller Center plaza is hard to miss with any view from offices or hotel rooms located in midtown Manhattan. Most people around the world, who watch movies or television shows that are filmed in New York, are familiar with the prominently featured statue of Prometheus above the famous ice rink. The guilded cast bronze statue of the Greek legend Titan Prometheus, which was created in 1934 by Paul Manship, who used Leonardo Nole as the model, is 18 feet high and weighs 8 tons. There is an inscription located on the granite wall behind the statue that is a quote from Aeschylus, which reads: ‘Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends.’
What most people don’t know, is that the Rockefeller Center is full of statues and art that was commissioned by Rockefeller when the plaza was being built, such as the relief ‘Joy of Life’ above the 48th Street entrance, it’s a beautiful piece of artwork by Attillo Piccirilli in 1937, the medium used is a Bas-relief, carved, polychrome painted, and guilded limestone. Flanking the staircase of the lower Plaza is the Mankind Figures; ‘Maiden and Youth’ also created by Paul Manship in 1939. The sculptures are 8 feet high, in cast bronze. The Fountainhead figures, located at the east ends of the six pools in the Channel Gardens, created by Rene Paul Chambellan in 1935; features figures that are about 3 feet high and are cast bronze. Also, located in the Channel Gardens, is the Christmas Angels, done in 1954 by Valerie Clarebout. They are made from aluminum wire, paint, brass wire, and lights; each figures is 8 feet high. 30 Rockefeller Plaza boasts a grand lobby decorated by accomplished European artist, Frank Brangwyn and Jose’ Maria Sert.
The Rockefeller Center’s contemporary and innovative artwork and attractions can be felt by all who come visit the Plaza. There’s even a Gallery with a remarkable collection of treasures themed ‘New Frontiers’, that denote man’s development in science, spirit, industry and much more. When Rockefeller Center officially opened in May 1933, it held true to the developing team’s belief that art was an act of good citizenship.
When you come to Boston, you’ll find a number of ways in which to experience New England’s largest city. If you want, you can hop on and off the Old Town Trolley, or you can choose to glide about the city on a Segway with Boston Gliders Segway Adventures , or dip into the water with a Boston Duck Tour . In Boston, while everyone may see the same sights, from Paul Revere’s House to Boston Harbor, the difference is in how you see those sights.
Segways arrived in the marketplace nearly ten years ago as a vehicle for personal transportation. Essentially the vehicle is a steering stick on a place to stand with two wheels. It’s self-balancing and contains zero emissions. While not everyone uses the Segways around town, you do see a lot more of them, often with police patrols or parking meter personnel, and so on. The second generation of the Segways, introduced in 2006, have LeanSteer technology, plus many other new functions.
Taking the Boston Gliders Adventure is a great way to both see the sights of Boston and to try out this relatively new transportation technology. The staff provides one-on-one training before you set out gliding around the city. Traveling in a group of Segways is a unique experience, especially since you’ll be traveling with an Adventure Captain along the way.
The Boston Duck Tour gives you a much wetter way to see the city, allowing you to travel in a World War II type of amphibious landing vehicle. You can step out of a great place to stay , and onto a “Duck,” where a conductor, known as a ConDUCKtor, will guide the tour. You’ll ride past the State House to Bunker Hill to Boston Common to Newbury Street and Quincy Market, and then, you’ll go where the land-based tours can’t take you, directly into the Charles River, where you’ll have a view of Boston and Cambridge.
Each of these tours let you see Boston in a unique way; find the one that fits your style best, or simply take them all!
New York is a city that is ripe for performance art. This elusive discipline, that still, after all these years, raises a few eyebrows, particularly by those who refuse to understand it, has had a fantastic run in New York. There have been moments of great cultural activity, where performance becomes central to the quotidian life of the artist-as-citizen here. There have likewise been moments when things seem to come to a standstill and the culture of the city seems to give over to financial nervousness, and it’s hard to see anything new on the streets.
The current core group of artists who find themselves connected through the support of Franklin Furnace seem to be pushing the watermark higher once again, by the weight of the volume of their work, as well as by the depth of complexity of the work itself. One of the artists who seems to be always pushing, and always working on new projects, is Nicolas Dumit Estevez . Some of his work is perfectly suited for more anonymous observation, such as when it’s displayed in places like El Museo del Barrio , or by discrete viewings of his Orange Cowboy film on youtube, but it’s real strength becomes more apparent when the live element is present.
That’s all to say, it becomes alive when the performer’s body is there. It may seem like an obvious point, but in performance art, that makes all the difference. It’s certainly interesting enough to make plans to stay in a New York cheap hotel to catch the work when he’s performing in town, and locals who are even tangentially connected to the art world here may have participated in his democratic performance events without even realizing it. Whether observing him walk backwards through the city, the performance of alter egos like Super Merengue, or offering samples of plantains cooked as representations of a Dominican exotic other, there are plenty of opportunities to catch, or to fall into, the next wave of performance art in the Americas.