Arts

Writer Steven Thomson and photographer Cameron Blaylock respond to Thomas Hirschhorn's Gramsci Monument, a conceptual sculpture commemorating an Italian philosopher installed at a NYCHA complex in the Bronx.

In the last of a series of profiles of Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts around the five boroughs, Summer Brennan explores the existing cultural community in St. George, Staten Island, and plans to encourage and capitalize on it to create "a high visibility gateway for cultural activity in Staten Island."

In honor of the re-opening of the Statue of Liberty after eight months of repairs following Superstorm Sandy, Peter Lehrer, who managed the ambitious reconstruction of the iconic monument between 1984 and 1986, describes in detail this complex feat of historic preservation.

Architectural photographer Albert Vecerka discusses his photographs of Harlem with historian John Reddick, reflecting on the visual traces of social, economic, and urban change.

In the second in a series of profiles of Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts, Mercedes Kraus looks at how a cultural community has flourished by leveraging its legacy of artistic production in the face of intensifying real estate pressure and outside influence and interest.

Juliet Helmke traces the origins and prospects of a genre of art that aims to educate and more effectively influence consumer behavior through the reinterpretation of ecological data.