Capture striking photographs of the gorgeous grounds and statuary of The Green-Wood Cemetery with the expert guidance of photographer Bethany Jacobson!
Twenty years after its 2005 debut, New Yorkers can once again experience the majesty of The Gates, a large-scale, participatory art installation by renowned artist coupleChristo and Jeanne-Claude. Made of 7,503 saffron-colored gates, each adorned with a free-flowing, seven-foot-long piece of fabric, the installation wound along 23 miles of pathways in Central Park. Though The Gates stood for only sixteen days, this installation's impact on the art world and New York City lasted much longer.
This year, The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, The Shed, Central Park Conservancy, NYC Parks, and Bloomberg Philanthropies will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of The Gates with a free exhibition at The Shed at Hudson Yards and an augmented reality experience in Central Park. Untapped New York got a sneak peek at these activations, which open on February 12th!
(Right) Vladimir Yavachev, Christo's nephew, demonstrates how to use the app
Augmented reality (AR) experiences have been popping up all over New York City. For the next month, New Yorkers can use this technology to experience The Gates where it once stood. Using your mobile device and the free Bloomberg Connects app, visitors to the park can see and interact with hundreds of virtual gates along wheelchair-accessible, paved pathways between the east and west sides of the park near 72nd Street. This interactive feature is available during daylight park hours. You can find the AR route with helpful signage.
The app allows you to take photos and videos, so it really looks like you are part of the installation! Users can also see sketches and read additional content about the installation through the app.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude spent 26 years working on The Gates, an installation they originally proposed in the 1970s. A new free exhibit at The Shed in Hudson Yards, Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City, gives visitors a behind-the-scenes look at how the installation came together over two decades, and an inside look at other projects that never saw the light of day.
Original drawings, scale models, photographs, videos, and an interactive tabletop map of Central Park are on view in the exhibit. In addition to following the making of The Gates, The Shed exhibit dives into projects by Christo and Jeanne that were never made, represented by drawings and models on display for the first time in the United States.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City is on view from February 12 to March 23, 2005. You can reserve tickets online here. The Gates AR experience in Central Park is available until April 16th.
