The Gates of Central Park, NYC

For two weeks in February 2005, renowned artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude transformed Central Park with 7,503 saffron-colored gates using fabric across 23 miles of paths.

For two weeks in February 2005, I wanted to see the gates. 

For two weeks, I tried to figure out a day to go.

But, I had two obstacles: snow and a 33-month old toddler.

Sanity prevailed over desire and we did not go.

Fast forward two decades to today.

After visiting the Luna Luna exhibit at The Shed in Manhattan, I noticed they were setting up a new exhibit about The Gates. Once home, I looked into it. I knew I didn't want to spend as much as we had on Luna Luna, so I wasn't too optimistic we would return for this exhibit. Much to my pleasure, it was free! We were able to time it when we were already coming into NYC to see the premier of SMASH on Broadway.

The exhibit included some concept art by Christo which made the gates appear to be fluttering on the page. They had one gate lying down so we could appreciate the size. There was a 3D augmented reality we could watch on iPad-sized gadgets, and time traveling videos of interviews describing the process.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude are fascinating people. He was born and educated in Bulgaria. He was in exile from 1956-1973. After moving to NYC he made a name for himself in the artworld. He first petitioned the city in the late 1970s to create this environmental sculpture. The videos from the time are classic -- "it will confuse the birds," "it is ugly," "what a bad precedence to set." Those are really paraphrases since I didn't take notes.

Two decades later and he approached Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who loved the idea. The city was recovering emotionally from 9/11. Christo and Jeanne-Claude were willing to pay for and oversee the entire project. The initial $4-5 million price tag rose to $20 million in the decades, but as Jeanne-Claude said "how much does it cost to raise a baby."

Jeanne-Claude died in 2020, and Christo in 2009. Thankfully they lived long enough to see this dream come true.

Also included in the exhibit is an augmented reality taking place in Central Park. With the help of an app, there are scanning stations you can click on to see what it looked like in 2005. I'm impressed someone took 3D pictures twenty years ago, stored them and turned them into this project even though in the meantime the artists have passed away. The ones we looked at were amazing -- Don moved his around and a male security guard appeared on the screen wearing a reflective vest right where a female security guard was standing not wearing a vest. He found it humorous. 

The exhibit is free. Not sure how much longer the scanning stations are going to be in the park. I'll update after our next trip.