The plaza at New York’s Lincoln Center, where ten stages and artificial turf have been constructed for public performances. Photo by Sachyn Mital
“After being dark since March of 2020, New York’s Lincoln Center welcomed audiences back Monday—to its radically transformed physical space,” reports Jeff Lunden in Tuesday’s (5/11) National Public Radio. “Ten stages are being built on the 16-acre campus … But the biggest transformation will be of the central plaza, in front of the marble-clad homes of the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet and the New York Philharmonic…. [Set designer] Mimi Lien [is] creating a kind of a village green … using an environmentally responsible artificial turf…. Lien hopes that people will hang out in the plaza…. Cliff Matias, director of the Redhawk Native Arts Council, says members of the Ramapough Lunaape will open Restart Stages with a land acknowledgement, … ‘indigenous performances from across the hemisphere and … drumming and singing and rattle songs.’ Henry Timms, Lincoln Center’s president, says the pause on activities, with both COVID and calls for social justice, has made the people running Lincoln Center, and other arts organizations around the country, question their core mission…. ‘Who’s on our stages and how are we engaging with broader communities and what are we saying to the world? All those questions are obviously critical.’ ”
