Interboro Tours

Art of the City is a “museum tour” of Midtown Manhattan. We treat the neighborhood like a series of galleries and tell its story through the art adorning the physical elements that give it its structure. 

 

Infrastructure built to move the masses made Midtown and the bones of that infrastructure have the stories of the neighborhood written all over them. We will take an art appreciation approach to ‘read the city’ so that we can uncover the stories of the characters who built this part of town and the ones who have lived and worked here. We will understand how Midtown came to be and what our place in it is. 

 

The bones and arteries of Midtown are adorned with art created by their architects or commissioned to some of America’s most important artists. These circulatory systems provide the energy of Midtown by swelling the neighborhood up with millions of characters each morning and funneling them away each night. 

 

Nature is a major theme of this tour. Rock, earth, water and foliage are a part of our streets and also provide a chance to escape the gridlock, pause, and breathe in the wonder of it all. 

 

There is perhaps no greater example in New York City - or America - of a piece of infrastructure dressed as a truly great work of art than Grand Central Terminal. After discovering the stories written all over the outside and inside of Grand Central, we will descend into the warren of subway tunnels and passageways to see works of art in steel, porcelain, glass and clay that adorn the system. We will make our way to Times Square where we will pause amongst the nonstop maelstrom so that we can rediscover this station as a gallery with art pieces contributed by some of the 20th Century’s most important American artists which celebrate the movement and bustle above and below ground in the heart of the city. We will end our journey in Central Park where we will take in nature’s splendor and uncover how this truly American masterpiece is both a living work of art inspired by the paintings and landscapes popular in Europe and America at the time – and a monumental advancement in public planning.