- Tuesday, September 29th 2026, 6PM
The American Artists’ Hand Archive with Thomas Donahue and Vanessa Hoheb
Vanessa Hoheb and Thomas Donahue are creating an archive of bronze life hand castings working in participation with many of America’s most venerated visual artists. The Project mission is to assemble an ongoing archive of superbly crafted bronze hand casts. Each artist, in their own way, approaches aesthetic challenges through the most basic manipulation of materials with gifted hands. As agents of creativity, these hands bear the marks of use that are inextricably tied to important contributions to contemporary American art. Ms. Hoheb and Mr. Donahue will discuss this significant project, recent developments and its important legacy.
ARCHTOBER
- Tuesday, October 6th 2026, 6PM
Ornamental Cornices: Manhattan’s Sheet-Metal Masterpieces with Henry Millman. Introduction provided by Peg Breen, President of the New York Landmarks Conservancy
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the facades of many residential and commercial buildings in America’s cities were crowned with sheet-metal cornices. These offered certain practical advantages over stone or brick cornices―for example, they were lighter and safer to install―but the easy workability of sheet metal also allowed for greater decorative possibilities. And of all the cities where these cornices were installed, New York may preserve the greatest number and variety―particularly in such Manhattan. Mr. Millman, in his talk based on his new book, Ornamental Cornices, will describe some of these exceptional cornices. This program is held in partnership with The New York Landmarks Conservancy and the Victorian Society of New York.
- Tuesday, October 13th 2026, 6PM
Art Deco New York City Public Programs in the 1930’s with Architectural Historian, Matt Postal
New York City was transformed in 1930s. Thousands of city residents were unemployed during the Great Depression and such far-sighted government officials as US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia and urban planner Robert Moses joined together to create an extraordinarily ambitious program of public buildings, art projects, and infrastructure. In this talk, Art Deco examples in all five boroughs will be examined and the impact that was felt on housing, health, recreation, leisure, and the environment. Join Matt Postal for an illustrated talk that considers how these enduring achievements came to be in the Art Deco era and why they still matter today. This program is held in partnership with the Art Deco Society of New York.
- Tuesday October 20th 2026, 6PM, The Bowery: A History of NYC’s Oldest Street, First Entertainment District, and Cradle of American Popular Culture with David Mulkins and special guests.
In the 1800s, the Bowery was the working-class main street; the architecture consisting of a rich, jumbled timeline spanning from circa 1807 Federal-style row houses to Gilded Age classical banks. Mr Mulkins will discuss this and how it evolved into the stomping ground for sailors, shopgirls, sporting men, gangs, gays, grifters, and the newly arrived immigrant population. The street has seminal ties to tap dance, minstrelsy, vaudeville, Yiddish theater, Stephen Foster, Irving Berlin, modern tattooing, Harry Houdini and Mae West. By the 1900s, the Bowery had also become America’s notorious skid row, but late in that century it helped foster Abstract Expressionism, Beat literature, free jazz, and punk rock.
- Tuesday, October 27th 2026, 6pm, Revisiting Gilded Age New York with Calvert Vaux with historians Francis Kowsky and Sara Cedar Miller
In the second half of the 19th century, New York grew into a true metropolis. Most people know about landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted’s work here, but in reality, it was his friend and collaborator Calvert Vaux who played the key role in creating both Central Park and Prospect Park in the city, as well as many other works around the country. Vaux also drew the plans for some of the grandest and historically significant buildings of his day. In this presentation, historians Francis Kowsky and Sara Cedar Miller will explore and discuss Vaux’s lasting—and often overlooked—contributions to New York’s urban legacy. Presented in conjunction with the Calvert Vaux Preservation Alliance (CVPA).
Registration links for these lectures will be posted at a later date, in the meantime for additional information, please write to ktaylor@generalsociety.org