LMCC's gallery is now hosting "In the Face of Others"

In 1971, Flory Barnett had a big idea to make art as synonymous with Lower Manhattan as finance. She envisioned public events that would encourage brokers, bankers, and other downtown workers to hang out south of Houston Street past five o'clock. She wanted to make sure New Yorkers would head downtown to view great art. She intended to create a mecca of fine arts and culture floating between the gleaming skyscrapers and subway tunnels that fill New York's original neighborhood.

Her vision took the name "Lower Manhattan Cultural Council" in 1973 -- and the organization has been working hard ever since to fulfill two primary missions, serving artists and integrating artists with the downtown community.

LMCC's work stands out because its projects are driven by a small group of art enthusiasts; they are curators, art historians, and artists in their own right. Thanks to their individual passions for art, they are passionate as a group about sharing it. 

Tricia Mire says the LMCC has touched many thousands of artists

For example, Tricia Mire, the LMCC's acting executive director, has an art history background and is extremely proud of facilitating the creative process and delivering it to Lower Manhattan. She says that today's LMCC continues to build on its founding mother's goal of bringing culture to the part of town that, at least in the late 60s-early 70s, had a strong but small group of artists but was largely preoccupied with cold, hard corporate life. "LMCC has always been about reinvention -- reinventing itself, bringing in fresh perspectives, and making way for new artists and art forms. The latest reinvention is matchmaking between artists, cultural groups, and real estate," says Mire.

Since the LMCC officially opened its doors in the same year as the World Trade Center, it has grown in both popularity and funding -- thanks especially to savvy corporate networking and fundraising by Barnett in the early years. In fact, it was her strategic appeal to Chase Manhattan Bank's chairman (and WTC mastermind) David Rockefeller that got the LMCC started on sound financial ground.

The beauty of intermingling and sharing art with downtown's flush law firms, financial institutions, and insurance companies means that these companies can participate in any number of art exhibitions, events, and performances -- from turning their building lobbies into art galleries to hosting concerts at parks or even on their plazas.

Sculptor and drawing artist Catarina Leitao's Woolworth Building studio space

For the first four years of the program, those artists took part in "World Views," where they worked in one of the WTC buildings thanks to space donated by the Port Authority. After September 11, 2001, displaced resident artists worked in donated spaces in the World Financial Center or just across the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO.

The program has since found a unified home on the 33rd floor of the landmark Woolworth Building, made possible by property management firm The Witkoff Group. And according to Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, one of the first artists to take part in the program at the Woolworth Building, being downtown has strongly influenced her work for the better.

"The Woolworth Building is amazing, and it has incredible views of the city," says Skvirsky, a photographer and video artist whose residency group occupied the space from April to October 2003. "While I was there I did a project based on views from the 33rd floor, which juxtaposed memory and architectural space.

"It was always very exciting to be down there, seeing the [WTC] site getting more and more organized, the PATH being built, and the constant flow of people," she says.

Skvirsky sings the praises of LMCC, pointing out the wide variety of cultural activities, panel discussions, and events the group puts on all year round. But the most important aspect is that "they facilitate artists making or performing art in Lower Manhattan," she says. "They integrate the artist into this community -- they're the bridge."

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is located at One Wall Street Court (at the intersection of Pearl and Hanover Streets). It is currently hosting in its gallery "In the Face of Others," a diverse and captivating collection of paintings and sculpture organized by past grant recipient NURTUREart. For gallery hours and more information about LMCC click here, or call (212) 219-9401.