Whitney Staff and Interns Receive Key To The City
Jun 22, 2010
Keys will be distributed until June 27 and can be copied at select locksmiths. Photograph by Sophie Cavoulacos
This summer, the Whitney is participating in Creative Time’s Key to the City program. The project, by artist Paul Ramírez Jonas and curated by Nato Thompson, aims to recreate the ritual through which mayors bestowed keys to dignitaries by allowing participants to honor each other with a key that opens hidden doors, padlocked boxes, and other surprises at sites across New York City’s five boroughs.
On Wednesday, June 9, six staff members and interns of the Education Department made their way to the Creative Time kiosk in Times Square to pick up their Key to the City. Despite the rain, people lined up to receive their keys even before the kiosk opened at 2 pm.
The key comes with instructions to finding the locks in each location. Photograph by Danielle Canter
After a brief key exchange ceremony recorded in the project’s public ledger, we returned to the Whitney—one of the twenty-four sites with a lock—to inaugurate our keys. In the lobby by the coat check, the key opened a wooden box that contained a surprise about the Museum’s new downtown building!
Most locks can be opened until Labor Day. Get a key at the Times Square kiosk or from a friend and come see for yourself!
By Sophie Cavoulacos, Education Intern