CITYarts, Inc. is a nonprofit public arts and education organization, focusing on creating murals and mosaics with youth and professional artists.
About For over 30 years, Tsipi Ben-Haim has been the Executive and Creative Director of CITYarts, Inc. As stated on their website, the mission of CITYarts is to "engage youth with professional artists in the creation of public art, including murals and mosaic. Through this creative process, CITYarts empowers, educates, and connects youth and children locally and around the world to become active participants in realizing their potential and transforming communities."
History CITYarts, Inc. was founded in 1989 by Tsipi Ben-Haim. The organization takes part of its name from Cityarts Workshop, which closed down after losing its funding in 1988. Since its inception, CITYarts has created over 350 mural projects predominantly in New York City, and seven Peace Walls internationally.
Projects
CITYarts' projects are created under five programs: Young Minds Build Bridges, Community Identity , Global HeARTWarming, Kids for Justice, and Windows of Opportunity. These projects are produced and created in under-served communities in the five boroughs of New York City, with the exception of Young Minds Build Bridges, which extends internationally. CITYarts includes a broad constituency of participants in order to expose youth to a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. CITYarts executes its programs through the youth-adult partnership model, in which young people are treated as responsible individuals with the capacity to meet challenges and make decisions. Through this creative process, CITYarts empowers, educates, and connects youth and children locally and around the world to become active participants in realizing their potential and transforming communities.
2022 Projects
Fly Us To The Moon We Can Stop the Speed of Climate Change The Next Wave Windows of Opportunity What We Bring To The Table A Bridge to Peace Our Voices Restoration: Mosaic Rolling Bench at General Grant National Memorial Walking with Justice
2021 Projects
The Golden Door The Joker Stairs The Next Wave Restoration: Mosaic Rolling Bench at General Grant National Memorial Always in Bloom
The Rolling Bench (1972–1974)
One of CITYarts' projects is The Rolling Bench at Grant's Tomb. A 400-foot mosaic bench, The Rolling Bench was described as the largest public arts project in the country when it was built between 1972 and 1974 by City Arts Workshop, the organization that would later become CITYarts, Inc.Huff-Hannon, Joseph, "Echoes of Gaudí in a Place That Honors Grant", The New York Times, July 20, 2008, "", August 12, 2010 The Rolling Bench was designed by a group of artists and youth, and the work on the bench was led by Chilean-born New York artist Pedro Silva and the architect Phillip Danzig.
The benches were not universally popular and there was much debate over whether or not to destroy or move the benches, citing architectural conflict between the neoclassical tomb and the modern, colorful bench.Mayo, Anna, "Cleansing of the Temples", The Village Voice, February 4–10, 1981"Grant's Tomb Clash", The New York Times", November 16, 1980"Recommend Moving Benches at Grant's Tomb: Park Service", Artworkers News, October 1980Lloyd, Leo, "Argue to Keep Benches", The Westsider, October 9, 1980Johnson, Rishard, "Gen. Grant's Nude Neighbors Face Ax as Obscene Eyesore", New York Post, July 18, 1979Johnston, Laurie, "Skirmish at Grant's Tomb Over Benches", The New York Times, July 23, 1979"Benchmark Case", ARTnews, November 1979 In 1997, the benches were nearly removed by the Park Service as part of the 100th anniversary renovations of Grant's Tomb. The Park Service cut out a small section of the benches and lifted it a few inches to assess how difficult it would be to move them.Allon, Janet, "Mosaic Benches Face Unseating At Grant's Tomb", The New York Times", March 30, 1997, "", August 13, 2010 However, The Rolling Bench was not removed and was restored in 2008 with the help of one of the original artists and many of the original volunteers, together with a group of young artists.Akasie, Jay, "Teaching Children the Benefits of Restoration",The New York Sun, August 27, 2008, "", August 12, 2010 It is also a current restoration project undertaken by CITYarts as of summer 2021.
Forever Tall (2001) Forever Tall was a mural completed in 2001, as a response to 9/11, overlooking Cooper Square in the East Village of Manhattan. The mural depicted the skyline of Manhattan at night with the twin towers as two columns of flowers.Cotter, Holland, "Amid the Ashes, Creativity", The New York Times, February 1, 2002, pages E33 and E35 The lead artists on this project were Hope Gangloff and Jason Search.Palmer, Joanne, "About the cover: Writing on the Wall", The New Jersey Jewish Standard, September 6, 2002, page 3 The mural no longer exists as the wall was subsequently painted over to be used for advertising.Malone, Michael, "Something There Was That Did Not Love This Wall", The New York Times, October 10, 2004
Programs
Young Minds Build Bridges The Young Minds Build Bridges program strengthens bonds among youth worldwide and helps to foster positive relationships among young people from diverse backgrounds. This program connects youth in NYC and their peers around the globe through Pieces for Peace art education workshops, the Pieces for Peace International Traveling Exhibition, and Peace Wall murals and mosaics.
Peace Walls
Harlem, New York Peace Wall, 2005 The Pieces for Peace Mosaic Wall is a vibrant 213-foot long (65m), permanent mosaic wall installed at the Jacob H. Schiff Park in Harlem, at 138th St and Amsterdam Ave in New York. This mosaic is one of CITYarts’ most recognizable projects due to its scale and international scope. The mosaic project was an integral part of CITYarts’ first international youth-led initiative, Pieces for Peace. Launched in 2004, the mosaic design was created by artist/illustrator Peter Sís in collaboration with international youth, and was completed in 2005.Inberg, Tara, "CITYarts, Making a Difference Through the Arts", SoHo Journal, page 20 The project was initially restored by artist Ricardo Arango, and is currently undergoing restoration with artist Andres Hoyos.
Karachi, Pakistan Peace wall, 2007
As quoted on CITYarts' Peace Walls website, the Pakistan Peace Wall "was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Grouting and tiling and cementing – apart from being extremely good for those of us who aspire to tone their muscles – actually made one feel useful. It was a nice change – if I fail to get a decent degree I know the perfect career option now – bathroom tiling! It made one realize the reason why humankind in general is going down the drain today: lack of teamwork. The most wonderful part was working with all the beautiful colours and textures and at last actually making it mean something. The wall represents Pieces for Peace and it really is what this city, in fact this whole world, needs desperately at present; protection of its forests and glaciers, of its hundreds of nations and their thousands of cultures and faith."
Tel Aviv–Jaffa, Israel peace wall, 2010
This Peace Wall mosaic was created in Ajami/Gabalia with the full collaboration of the neighborhood youth and the workshop participants. Under the direction of two artists, Yoav Weiss (Jewish) and Salma Shehade (Arab), 50 after-school workshops took place in Tel Aviv-Yafo, at the Arab-Hebrew Theatre of Yafo, the Peres Center for Peace, and other locations.
During this time, CITYarts also worked with the participants to create a neighborhood garden with The Council for a Beautiful Israel. They created a Leadership Club, led by the Tabeetha School, to be in charge of the maintenance and care of the wall.
London, UK Peace Wall, 2012
This Peace Wall mural was created with the help of professional artists Sadie Edginton and Joanna Nowek. Local youth and the public had the opportunity to participate in Pieces for Peace art workshops and helped create the Peace Wall mural on one of London Overground's walls.
The Peace Wall is located at Regents Canal Bridge on Dunston Road (under Haggerston Overground Bridge).
Berlin, Germany Peace Wall, 2013
This Peace Wall mosaic was produced in the historic Mitte district of Berlin, on a street "known to many as the 'Street of Tolerance' because of its proximity to the Old Jewish Cemetery, a landmark Protestant church, a historic Catholic hospital, and the Jewish School."
In a collaboration between multicultural youth together with students from diverse EU countries and communities, the Peace Wall "connects – not divides – and celebrates the peaceful future that can be realized through the engagement of tomorrow's leaders." The mosaic, located in such an emotionally-charged and historically significant city, serves to reflect on Berlin's "complex and often tragic past while looking forward into a future of peace envisioned by today's generation of European youth."
Pieces for Peace (2002 – present) Pieces for Peace is a CITYarts project started in 2002. As stated on the CITYarts website, this project "was designed to build bridges of international understanding by bringing together American youth and their peers from around the world to create drawings, paintings, and poems." Pieces for Peace enables national and international students, ages 12 to 18, to express their own personalized visuals of peace and what peace means or looks like to them, by drawing images on pieces of paper. These drawings are then digitized and uploaded onto CITYarts' online gallery, and are sometimes incorporated into Pieces for Peace Traveling Exhibitions around the world. These works have been exhibited at the UN in New York City. Representative images and poems from this massively collaborative art project were incorporated into the design of the Jacob H. Schiff Park mosaic wall, under the artistic direction of the award-winning children's illustrator Peter Sís, to help share their visions for a more peaceful future and to translate those ideas into personal works of art. To date, there have been over 10,000 Pieces for Peace created, from 88 countries around the world.
Pieces for Peace Workshops & Traveling Exhibitions (2005 – present) CITYarts' Pieces for Peace Workshops program welcomes and enables interested individuals, teachers, students, youth group leaders and more to organize a classroom, group, or personalized workshop to create their own Pieces for Peace.
The Pieces for Peace Traveling Exhibition features selected Pieces for Peace created by youths from around the world. This exhibition travels both nationally and internationally.
Some exhibition venues include, but are not limited to:
Flushing Town Hall, Queens, NY: September–October 2005. Cork Gallery, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, NY: May–June 2006. Jewish Community Center, New York, NY: July–September 2006. Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn, NJ: September–October 2006. Gabarron Foundation Carriage House Center for the Arts, New York, NY: March–April 2007. Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany: July 2007. iEARN Youth Summit, Cairo, Egypt: July 2007. Beit-Sokolov Center for Journalists, Tel-Aviv, Israel: September–October 2007. Museo Fundación Cristóbal Gabarrón, Valladolid, Spain: October 2007. Fundación Casa Pintada, Murcia, Spain. EU Parliament, Belgium: October 2009. United Nations Headquarter, New York, NY: December 2009. American International Toy Fair, Javits Center, New York, NY: February 2010. Mission of the State of Quatar, New York, NY: March 2010. Ana Tzarev Gallery, New York, NY: April–May 2010. Fundacion Marcelo Botin, Santander, Spain: October 2010. Association Memoire de l’Avenir, Paris, France: May 2011. Allianz Headquarters, Berlin, Germany: December 2011.