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Commuters walking through Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall today and tomorrow will be treated to a glorious and colorful new installation, courtesy of Crayola and fresh cut flowers distributor Mrs. Bloom’s License Corp. 

“Crayola Flowers Giving Garden” is a beautiful floral display that celebrates the launch of the two entities’ new collaborative project, Crayola Flowers, a new platform that allows consumers to buy blooms while donating a portion of sales to a participating nonprofit of their choice. 

Even more specifically, Crayola Flowers will allow various nonprofit organizations—including schools, religious groups and animal shelters, among others—to create their very own custom flower shop to send out into the world. The philanthropy will in turn receive from 10% to more than 50% proceeds from all sales, depending on the option they themselves opt for. 

Mrs. Bloom will directly source the blooms from responsible growers all around the world and ship the bouquets to consumers in the United States via FedEx. Easy, peasy.

Currently participating nonprofits include 4-H,  A Kid Again, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, American Heart Association, Autism Speaks, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Hawai’i Community Foundation Maui Strong Fund, On Our Sleeves, One Tree Planted, Operation Homefront, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, The Humane Society and Wounded Warrior Project. We expect that list to quickly grow.

Sure, the partnership may sound a bit eccentric at first impact, but it clearly works. After all, Crayola has always championed the power of colors and creativity in business—both important aspects when choosing a bouquet for the home or to send out to a loved one as a gift. Add to it all a generous cause and you’ve got yourself a strong recipe. 

Make sure to stop by the station to catch the festival of florals through tomorrow afternoon. It’s perfect Instagram fodder.

* This article was originally published here

“Let Me Tell You” is a series of columns from our expert editors about NYC living, including the best things to do, where to eat and drink, and what to see at the theater. They publish each Tuesday so you’re hearing from us each week. Last time, Things to Do Editor Rossilynne Skena Culgan shared 10 hot tips for NYC’s biggest tourist attractions.

In a new exhibit at The Met, several of Pablo Picasso’s early works hang perfectly mounted on the museum’s walls, telling the story of a little-known residential commission the artist began but never completed. Meanwhile, across the river at the Brooklyn Museum, Picasso’s paintings are presented next to feminist works of art and damning quotes by the artist in an exhibit called “It’s Pablo-matic.”

Back in Manhattan, the Museum of Modern Art is set to launch a show called “Picasso in Fontainebleau,” which will focus on the works Picasso created during three months in Fontainebleau, France. For its part, The Guggenheim just wrapped up “Young Picasso in Paris,” an exhibit detailing the artist’s foundational early years in France. Finally, The Hispanic Society Museum will display “Picasso and the Spanish Classics“ later this fall, exploring Picasso’s response to Spanish literature. 

Fifty years after his death, Picasso is having a moment thanks to “Celebration Picasso 1973-2023,” a global commemoration at museums across the world. It’s organized by the Spanish and French governments as a deep exploration of his work.

Here in New York, each exhibition tells a very different story about Picasso. The stories aren’t necessarily in conflict, but it can be hard to reconcile the very different facets of the artist’s life presented in each sliver. Some will argue that every human is complicated, that he lived in a different time, and that few face public scrutiny in the way one of the world’s most famous artists has. 

I believe art-goers must view Picasso’s work with some level of scrutiny or at least detachment.

But it’s for exactly that last reason that I believe art-goers must view Picasso’s work with some level of scrutiny or at least detachment. 

The Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition, however, takes scrutiny to a new level, eviscerating the artist in a show co-curated by comedian Hannah Gadsby. The show takes aim at Picasso’s apparent sordid history with women and how his icon status has largely gone unquestioned. Gadsby, in a Netflix comedy special called Nanette, lambasts Picasso’s alleged misogyny.

In a scathing review, The New York Times bashed the show’s title, content, its banter on the labels and lack of a catalog. It’s rare for an art exhibit review to become a hot topic on Twitter, but this one blew up. A barrage of Tweets dunked on the exhibit, but given the fact that the show had just opened when the review was published, I’d venture to guess the vast majority of people hating on the exhibition hadn’t even seen it first-hand.

The Times argued that “It’s Pablo-Matic” permitted the audience “to turn their backs on what challenged them, and to ennoble a preference for comfort and kitsch.” But that’s not the experience I had when exploring the Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition.

To me, the exhibit acknowledged Picasso’s brilliance while recognizing his faults. It turned away from the idea of simplicity—genius man, great art, hooray—and instead encouraged visitors to dig into the complexity of art and the question of how we separate the art from the artist (or if we can/should do that at all).

If you only know Picasso as the uber-famous artist, as I did before visiting the Brooklyn Museum show, the show proved to be an important eye-opener with facts I continue to carry with me as I traverse the rest of the city’s Picasso shows. “It’s Pablo-matic” played a crucial role in examining Picasso’s legacy in a way the other New York City shows have not. If that means putting up with a few jokes an art critic found “juvenile,” then so be it. 

The exhibit isn’t about canceling Picasso, either. It’s possible to admire his brushstrokes while feeling appalled that he’s said to have uttered the phrase: “For me there are only two kinds of women—goddesses and doormats.”

In addition to quotes from Gadsby, wall texts also feature quotes from the featured artists themselves. The museum contacted every living woman artist they featured to ask for their thoughts on Picasso. 

What matters is that we are able to have the discussion, the conversation about him and his work, instead of just bracketing off the one from the other.

In one of those quotes, sculptor Rachel Kneebone shared these words: “We could cancel Picasso for some of the things he did, but what he created continues to affect people and inspire them. What matters is that we are able to have the discussion, the conversation about him and his work, instead of just bracketing off the one from the other.”

That’s a conversation I’d like to see in more of the Celebration Picasso 1973-2023 exhibitions, not just the Brooklyn Museum’s take on the topic. 

Brooklyn Museum doesn’t answer the question, as Lisa Small, a curator at Brooklyn Museum, put it: “What do we do with the art of terrible men?”

There is no one answer. But contextualizing Picasso’s life and hanging his work next to feminist artists who came to prominence in the 50 years since his death is a noble place to start. 

So, please, I urge you to go see “It’s Pablo-matic” at the Brooklyn Museum before it closes on September 24. I also urge you to see The Met’s Picasso exhibition and the upcoming Picasso shows at MoMA and The Hispanic Society Museum—just remember that, as Brooklyn Museum put it, ”admiration and anger can co-exist.” 

* This article was originally published here

Time Out is launching a fun video series featuring … you!

This new “City Explorers” program will hand over the social media spotlight to a collaborator from the city each month. Through two videos made in Time Out’s style, each month’s collaborator will show people how to have a great time in the city and show off new, unique and diverse parts of the city and communities that don’t always get the attention they deserve. 

The videos will be posted to both Time Out’s and the collaborators’ Instagram channels. 

Interested? Send an email to us about why you think you’d be a good fit with a link to your IG/TikTok accounts to to.video@timeout.com.

* This article was originally published here

Following successful runs in Madrid, Milan, Paris and Rome, the Balloon Museum is officially set to take over Pier 36 on South Street in downtown New York this fall.

Housed both inside and outside of the 80,000 square feet that make up the space, the new cultural destination will make its debut on October 27 with a new exhibit titled “Let’s Fly,” scheduled to run through January 14, 2024. Tickets for the show are available right here.

Expect a variety of installations created by 18 different international artists and media studios to be on display, each one pertaining to the importance of modern art and exploring the nature of inflatables. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the art, touching and feeling the various pieces exhibited. Basically, the exact opposite of the “don’t touch the art” mantra that dominates trips to more traditional museums.

Among the showcased artists will be muralist Camila Falsini, Sasha Frolova (she’s the one responsible for the inflatable latex sculptures you won’t stop staring at) and Cyril Lancelin, among others. 

In terms of actual pieces, you can expect a 4,000-square-foot ball pit, inflatable lava lamps and the sorts of infinity rooms that you’ll itch to post about on Instagram.

It will take you about 90 minutes to peruse through the entire experience, which includes stops at different rooms and the occasional use of VR sets.

One more thing: after looking through the pictures, the pop-up experience may seem a bit familiar—that’s because the destination made an appearance on the last season of Netflix hit TV show Emily in Paris. 

* This article was originally published here

Join 35+ pizzeria legends this weekend at Barstool Sports founder and pizza aficionado, Dave Portnoy’s inaugural One Bite Pizza Festival at Maimonides Park in Coney Island. Staking it’s place as the largest pizza and music festival of its kind, it will debut on Saturday, September 23, 2023.

Expect to see iconic establishments like Di Fara Pizza, John’s of Bleeker Street, Prince Street Pizza, Patsy’s Pizzeria, Lucali and more! View all participating pizzerias here.

GA all inclusive pizza tickets include: access to the festival, unlimited complimentary pizza from more than 35 of the country’s best pizzerias, complimentary access to the Italian Dessert Village and Ferraro Foods Piazza, general admission viewing for One Bite Live hosted by Dave Portnoy, interactive activations, and access to a cash bar.

And before you stuff yourself silly, let’s not forget it’s part food festival and music festival. Therefore, visitors will get the chance to hear from musical superstars like Teddy Swims, Pup Punk, and DJ Irie.

One Bite Pizza Festival will welcome 5,000 foodies, however, tickets are selling out fast! The event will happen rain or shine. Learn more details on their website.

Maimonides Park in Coney Island

12:30pm – 6pm

The post An All-You-Can-Eat Pizza Festival Is Coming To Coney Island appeared first on Secret NYC.

* This article was originally published here