Everything that awaits us in New York in 2021
We leave behind (finally!) a year that has made everything very difficult for us. Even visiting one of our favorite cities: we can't wait for you, New York.
THE IMPRESSIVE LITTLE ISLAND FLOATING PARK
Central Park has faced tough competition with this new green area that sails over the waters of the always murky Hudson River. There is no better definition than its own name, Little Island, a small island connected to Manhattan by footbridges . The pandemic does not seem to have altered its construction thanks to a millionaire investment by designer Diane von Furstenberg and her husband, the billionaire barry diller , residents of the neighborhood on whose banks it rises, the Meatpacking District.
Little Island
Thomas Heatherwick, the fashionable architect of the city after the overwhelming success of The Vessel , in Hudson Yards, is behind an original design composed of a series of concrete pods at various heights that give the impression of a giant wave. As well as original structures, Heatherwick seems to be the king of designs that lend themselves to funny nicknames. The Vessel earned the nickname beehive, corset and even shawarma . And the same with these pods that already carry the new labels of heels, glasses of champagne or tulips . whatever you call it, the truth is that it will be a small botanical garden where you can discover more than 30 varieties of trees, 65 shrubs and 270 vegetation of all kinds, the vast majority New York natives. This new green haven in Manhattan is not to be missed.
FLORAL EXPLOSION BY YAYOI KUSAMA
We expected it last spring but the pandemic has forced us to wait a whole year. The colorful Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama stars in a complete retrospective, never seen before, of all her work and that will occupy every corner of the New York Botanical Garden . And it is not little: it adds more than 100 hectares. KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature delves into the artist's obsession for flowers and polka dots in the form of sculptures, floral installations and its striking infinite spaces made with mirrored walls.
In addition to exhibiting some of her works for the first time, Kusama has prepared four completely new works including flower obsession , a monumental greenhouse that visitors are invited to fill with flower stickers, and Illusion Inside the Heart , an immersive outdoor installation that changes with the light of day and the season. No doubt this is going to be one of the most fragrant springs in New York.
KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature
THE NEW ONE VANDERBILT OBSERVATORY
Let's count: Empire State Building, Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center, The Edge at Hudson Yards, and One World Observatory at One World Trade Center. In case New York lacks viewpoints, another one opens next fall.
It is on top of the brand new OneVanderbilt , the fourth tallest skyscraper in the city, and very aptly bears the name of The Summit, that is, the top. It rises to 305 meters high and will be the shortest of all by just a few feet. The observatory occupies the 57th, 58th and 59th floors and will compete directly with The Edge by also having a small space with a glass floor for visitors to peer into the abyss of the streets of New York . In addition to having an outdoor terrace to have a drink (and, surely, recover from the attack of vertigo), the 58th floor will be dedicated to an infinite room with walls up to 12 meters high. The One Vanderbilt is located on the east side of Manhanttan Island, next to Grand Central Terminal and the beautiful Chrysler Building , so it stands out from the rest of the observatories with a totally different point of view.
KAWS RETROSPECTIVE
You will have seen the caricatured figures of this New York artist on T-shirts, lithographs or even live, and this year you will also see them in one of his most complete exhibitions. Behind his nickname, KAWS, hide Brian Donnelly , which began by filling the streets with graffiti and has ended with art collectors buying his works, at auction, for thousands of dollars. With KAWS: WHAT PARTY the Brooklyn Museum dedicates a large space to reviewing 25 years of Donnelly's career with his sketches, drawings, paintings and sculptures . The iconic COMPANION cannot be missing, the character that has become his personal hallmark and of which a giant wooden version will be exhibited as the centerpiece.
KAWS: WHAT PARTY
CHURCH DESTROYED ON 9/11 OPENS TO WORSHIP
One of the many painful losses of the terrorist attacks against the Twin Towers of 2001 it was a humble Greek Orthodox church that stood at his feet. Its reconstruction, in the new and elevated World Trade Center Liberty Park , it has not been easy. The project was going from strength to strength but ran out of money. And there came a hiatus of more than a year. A shower of donations has made it possible for the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church Be prepared for the 20th anniversary of the attacks, next September 11.
The church is the work of the Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava which adds another design in the same area after the Oculus. The temple, inspired by the church of San Salvador de Cora in Istanbul, will be clad in impeccable white marble, typical of the architect, and lit from the inside to make it shine at night.
Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church
THE GRAND THEATER OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
Another of the mammoth projects in the same neighborhood comes to an end this year. North of the 9/11 Memorial, next to the imposing One World Trade Center , continue, slowly but surely, the works of the so-called Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center. This new cultural space, in the shape of a cube, will have three floors. On the top floor there will be three stages prepared to receive 100, 250 and 500 spectators, respectively. . On the second floor there is a rehearsal room that could be adapted to become a fourth theater. Finally, the ground floor will be open to the public and will have bars and restaurants. The new Lower Manhattan cultural center has Barbra Streisand as president and will host screenings of the Tribeca Film Festival held each spring. Its inauguration is also scheduled for September 11.
Its opening is scheduled for the 20th anniversary of September 11 (in 2021)
GOYA IN THE METROPOLITAN
We know many works and facets of the brilliant Spanish painter and, this spring, the Metropolitan Museum of Art invites us to know a perhaps more surprising aspect. Throughout his career, Goya completed around 900 drawings and prints through which he expressed his political ideas and social criticism. Goya's Graphic Imagination proposes a journey through his evolution as graphic designer through a hundred works from the collection of the same museum and several on loan from the Prado National Museum and the National Library.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
MORE FRICK COLLECTION
One of the most unnoticed museums (and unfairly) is about to expand . The collection of works of art that are exhibited in the mansion of the Frick family, in the middle of Fifth Avenue , has to move through some laborious expansion works of the original headquarters. And the new place oozes art on all four sides. The Breuer building, named after the architect who designed it and opened it in 1966, housed the Whitney museum until 2014 . The modern and contemporary branch of the Metropolitan took over from then on, but last spring it closed its doors forever. Early in the new year it will reopen as Frick Madison and it will be your new home for the next two years. The center will take the opportunity to rearrange its art collection and exhibit works that rarely see the light of day . We will have to take advantage.
Exterior of Frick Madison
BROADWAY RAISES THE CURTAIN
The world of culture is one of the industries that has suffered the hardest from the pandemic. Without tourists in the city and given the security restrictions due to the coronavirus, all the theaters in Broadway had to close indefinitely . After more than a year with the lights off, the New York stages are preparing to reopen in June. With the permission of the pandemic, many of the works pending release in 2020 will finally start performances throughout the summer or beyond. This includes the musical MJ about the life of Michael Jackson, Mrs Doubtfire , film adaptation starring Robin Williams, and the stage play Square Suite that brings together on stage the couple, in real life, made up of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick.
THE OPERA RETURNS TO THE MET
Following in the wake of Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera's programming skipped 2020 but also part of 2021. The great theater, located in the Lincoln Center, has planned to resume functions from September 27 and he will do it in style. The chosen work is Fire Shut up in my Bones by Terence Blanchard. It will be the first opera by a black composer to hit the Met stages. It will not be the only contemporary work that can be seen and the program is accompanied by great classics such as Rigoletto and Porgy and Bess.
Fire Shut up in my Bones