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New York

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“It is by all odds the loftiest of cities. It even managed to reach the highest point in the sky at the lowest moment of the depression.”
― E.B. White

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Guild Hall is an arts, entertainment, and education center for the community. Its primary focus is to inform, inspire, and enrich our diverse audiences by presenting programs of the highest quality in the visual and performing arts, to collaborate with artists of Eastern Long Island, to foster the artistic spirit and to provide a meeting place for all.

Guild Hall, one of the first multidisciplinary centers in the country to combine a museum, theater, and education space under one roof, was established in 1931 as a gathering place for community where an appreciation for the arts would serve to encourage greater civic participation. For nearly nine decades, Guild Hall has embraced this open-minded vision and provided a welcoming environment for the public to engage with art exhibitions, performances, and educational offerings. Art and artists have long been the engine of Guild Hall’s activities and the institution continues to find innovative ways to support creativity in everyone.

In 1930, East Hampton resident and philanthropist Mrs. Lorenzo E. Woodhouse anonymously dedicated land and an initial financial gift toward building one of the country’s first interdisciplinary centers. Her vision was “to heighten the importance of the arts” and provide a building that would “serve as meeting place.” The community rallied to secure additional funding, as well as manage and oversee the development and maintenance of a new facility.

Guild Hall

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The International Center of Photography (ICP) is the world’s leading institution dedicated to photography and visual culture. 

Cornell Capa founded ICP in 1974 to preserve the legacy of “concerned photography”—the creation of socially and politically minded images that have the potential to educate and change the world—and the center’s mission endures today, even as the photographic medium and imagemaking practices have evolved. Through its exhibitions, school, public programs, and community outreach, ICP offers an open forum for dialogue about the role that photographs, videos, and new media play in our society. To date, it has presented more than 700 exhibitions and offered thousands of classes at every level. 

ICP brings together photographers, artists, students, and scholars to create and interpret the realm of the image. Here, members of this unique community are encouraged to explore photography and visual culture as mediums of empowerment and as catalysts for wide-reaching social change.

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International Center of Photography

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The world’s leading institution dedicated to photography and visual culture

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MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

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An iconic modern art museum celebrating creativity, openness, tolerance, and generosity. 

There’s something special about every moment you spend at Rockefeller Center. From the historic art and architecture to the Top of the Rock observation deck, you can experience New York in a way that can only happen here.

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Rockefeller Center

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Explore the spirit of innovation and reinvention at the heart of New York City. 

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Queens Museum

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Presents artistic and educational programs and exhibitions that directly relate to the contemporary urban life of its constituents.

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Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center

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The former residence and studio of artists Jackson Pollock and his wife Lee Krasner.

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Whitney Museum of American Art

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Twentieth-century and contemporary American art, with a special focus on works by living artists.

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art is the only dedicated LGBTQ art museum in the world with a mission to exhibit and preserve LGBTQ art and foster the artists who create it. 

Created by our founders to preserve LGBTQ+ identity and build community, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art acts as a cultural hub for the LGBTQ+ community. Our roots trace back to 1969 when Charles Leslie and Fritz Lohman held an exhibit of gay artists for the first time in their SoHo loft. Throughout the 1970s, they continued to collect and exhibit gay artists while supporting the SoHo art community. During the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s, the collection continued to grow as they rescued the work of dying artists from families who, out of shame or ignorance, wanted to destroy it. This led to the formation of the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation in 1987. In recognition of its importance in the collection and preservation of LGBTQ+ history, the organization was accredited as a museum in 2016. With a collection of over 30,000 objects, the Museum hosts six major exhibitions annually, offers several public programs throughout the year, publishes an arts newsletter, and maintains a research library of over 3,000 volumes. The Museum examines the juxtaposition between art and social justice in ways that provoke thought and dialogue.

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Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art

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The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art provides a platform for artistic exploration through multi-faceted queer perspectives. 

The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) is an exhibition and research center dedicated to the study of art and exhibition practices from the 1960s to the present. CCS Bard is home to one of the world’s leading graduate programs in curatorial practice: the study of historical models for the presentation and reception of art, and the development of new ones. This program is positioned within the larger Center, which includes the Hessel Museum of Art— with its permanent collection of over 3,000 works—and the Center’s Library and Archives. 

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CCS Bard | Hessel Museum of Art

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Wyckoff House Museum

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From our recording studio in Brooklyn, we make audio that celebrates human creativity, history and the spaces we live to learn about.

Come with us as we time travel to the Roaring 20’s and explore the creation of one of New York City’s most iconic places.
- Behind the scenes look at the renovations to the concourse
- Artistic masterpieces hidden in plain site
- 350 million year old fossils

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English

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A Beautiful Noise is an exhilarating, energy-filled musical memoir, that tells the untold true story of how America’s greatest hitmaker became a star, set to the songs that defined his career.

Get ready for a tour that is so good! so good! so good!

You can follow in the footsteps of the legendary singer songwriter Neil Diamond and discover how his Brooklyn roots and life in New York laid out the foundation for him to go on and sell more than 130 million records worldwide and be part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His story is now being played 8 times a week at the Broadhurst Theatre in the hit show, "A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical." 

John Friia, the content creator behind Here In NY, takes you around Neil's New York. You’ll learn more about how Neil’s story came to Broadway from producer Ken Davenport along with insights from backstage by American Idol winner Nick Fradiani, who portrays Neil in the show.

$17.99

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Neil Diamond's New York

When Covid started, some aspects of our lives seemed to slow down. We began taking longer walks in the park, and noticing things around us more. We stopped to smell flowers, watch dogs play in the pond and read books on park benches. And we started to realize how lucky we were to live so close to such a magical park.

Saunter with us as we explore the interesting history and ecology of the park, and pay homage to this wonderful part of Brooklyn.

This walk was created in Summer 2020.

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Prospect Park

When a key player goes missing at the marriage ceremony of the summer, reluctant wedding columnist Bobbi Rossetti transfigures into an ad hoc investigative reporter on the case. Follow Bobbi through a fictional version of 1920s Prospect Park as she decodes the clues and uncovers a stunning secret in this immersive audio mystery. 

Walter Prest is Duncan Gallagher 
Minnie Prest is Canning Robb
Irving Locke is Jake Kuhn
Roland Archer is Nathan Snow
Caissa Archer is Haley Schwartz
Bobbi Rossetti is Georgia Wright
Additional voice acting by Carter Hodge and Rebecca Carroll

Good Prospects was produced, written, and edited by Georgia Wright for Gesso. 

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Good Prospects: An Audio Mystery

Late one night during Covid, we started wondering “Did Williamsburg invent the hipster?”

Turns out the answer is no. In fact, probably closer to the opposite. The first hipsters were fashionable non-conformists and creative countercultural types. But, what happens when a movement founded on non-conformity becomes something you can buy off the rack? 

Join us on a sociological dive into this subculture. We’ll find all of the markers of hipsterism, from thrifting and vinyls, to beer and bowling, and even (vegan) ice cream.

This walk was created in Summer 2020.

$11.99

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Williamsburg

With news focused on space travel to distant galaxies, we often take for granted the engineering marvels right in front of our own eyes. Now an iconic feature of the NYC skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge was once thought of as impossible. 

Meet the men, and woman, that advanced the science of bridge building by constructing this work of “Practical Grandeur”, and hear how the bridge served as the backdrop for the Black Lives Matter Movement.

This walk was created in the summer of 2020.

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Brooklyn Bridge

In the 1970s, Lower Manhattan was sliding into decay. Within this negative space emerged a new subculture. We’ll call them punks, even if they didn’t at first. 

We’ll peer into the shuttered storefronts, and reminisce on an intense period of artistic expression. Join us to retrace the steps of poets, photographers, painters and performers who defined punk. 

This walk was created in the summer of 2020.

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East Village

Governors Island is just an eight-minute ferry ride from Lower Manhattan but feels a world apart. Once known by the Lenape people as Pagganack, or Nut Island, this ice cream cone-shaped site served as a military outpost for centuries and today stands as a scenic refuge that is home to an impressive array of cultural, environmental, educational, and recreational offerings. 

Grab a citibike at the station just by the ferry and join us as we  circle the island and trace its transformation, discover storied castles, innovative built environments and a park designed to withstand climate change.

This tour was made as a collaboration between Open House New York, the Trust for Governors Island, and Gesso in summer 2021.

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Governors Island

In the 1960s, SoHo was deserted. That's when my parents moved here.

I'm Yukie Ohta. My sister Mimi and I were born and raised in SoHo, and I still live here with my artist husband and our daughter. 

I want to show you my SoHo. We’ll trace signs of the past, and uncover hidden details only lifelong residents can show you.

PS - Bring a fridge magnet if you have one handy!

This walk was created in the summer of 2021.

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SoHo

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The Upper West Side was Hannah Arendt’s home from 1941 when she arrived as a stateless refugee, until she died in 1975. This neighborhood on a hill, home to fellow artists, writers, and friends, became a haven from her endless speaking and teaching schedule, which took her around the world. She wrote here, entertained here, and rested here, and it was here where she found the four walls necessary for solitude, friendship, and thinking. For the next hour we’re going to walk the Upper West Side and trace how Hannah Arendt made a home in the United States, discovering where she used to live, what she liked to grab for lunch, and how she got her start as a writer. Let’s begin. 

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Hannah Arendt’s New York

Lower Manhattan has one of the highest concentrations of monuments and memorials in the world. This Gesso walking tour, written and narrated by designer & educator Eric Moed, will reveal New York City’s invisible past; NYC’s contested origin story, obscure fragments of history, hidden reflective spaces & unbuilt memorials. Nine sites of memory will challenge you to think critically about the role monuments and memorials in public space play in defining our past and present, exposing you to strategies to directly advance New York City’s story into the future. This tour is a joint production of Gesso and oopsa aka Office of Open Practice Studio/Agency. For more information visit www.oopsa.org. Special thank you to Alice Kakurina and Roman Mamus who contributed to the research and scripting of this tour.

AUDIO TOURS FOR SEEKERS + ROAMERS.