FOR RELEASE: Immediate, Thursday, April 28, 2005

Harlem Hospital, DASNY Outline Plans to Preserve Historic Murals

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Modernization Project Requires Art Removal, Reinstallation

NEW YORK � Harlem Hospital Center�s historic murals will be removed this spring and summer from their current homes for restoration and later reinstallation in a new patient pavilion, scheduled for completion in 2009.

The Hospital held a public kick-off meeting today to brief the Harlem community on plans to preserve the artworks, commissioned by the federal Works Progress Administration in the 1930s to provide employment during the Great Depression. Artists then were assigned projects in public institutions throughout the nation, including hospitals, schools and airports. Harlem Hospital Center was the site of one of the first major mural commissions approved for and supervised by African-American artists, including Charles Alston, Vertis Hayes and Georgette Seabrooke.

�These murals are national treasurer,� said Dr. John M. Palmer, Executive Director of Harlem Hospital Center. �The serve as cornerstones to the history of the Hospital, community and nation. �It is our intent to preserve these murals, their historical importance and the legacies of these grand masters for generations to come.�

The Dormitory Authority is supervising the modernization project, and will work with Goshow Architects and the conservator, EverGreene Painting Studio, to preserve the murals. The artwork is now in the New Nurses Resident and the Women�s Pavilion, both scheduled for demolition under the modernization project.

�Before we can build our future, we must understand and honor our past,� Dormitory Authority Executive Director Maryanne Gridley said. �In this instance, as one of the first steps in this $225 million dollar Harlem Hospital renovation and construction project, we will remove, preserve and reinstall Harlem Hospital�s historic murals, which were created as part of the WPA under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.�

Ms. Gridley added that after the murals are removed, demolition will begin on their former homes as well as the emergency medical services building, station, the Old Nurses Residence and the Outpatient Department.

�By the end of 2009,� Mr. Gridley stated, �a 400-car parking garage and the new five-story patient pavilion will be constructed, and the murals will be reinstalled in its lobby.� The patient pavilion will be built on Lenox Avenue where the EMS facility stands now, and will link the Martin Luther King Pavilion with the Ronald H. Brown Ambulatory Care Pavilion. Integrating the three buildings will create a more-efficient hospital campus.

Most of the eight buildings housing the Harlem Hospital Center were built in the early and mid-1900s, and the murals have suffered considerable damage over time. The murals include mosaics, frescos (water-based color painted directly onto moist plaster) and oil on canvas that is attached to the wall. Work planned for the murals includes:

�Pursuit of Happiness� by Vertis Hayes, which consists of eight 8-foot by 16-foot panels and was completed in 1936: Stabilization and cleaning, salvage or replication of architectural elements, detachment and removal of debris and wall fabric, relining and remounting on custom panels, in-painting to fill in losses, abrasions and streaks, pictorial restoration, and an application of varnish.
�Recreation in Harlem� by Georgette Seabrook, 108 feet of oil on wall completed in 1937: Removal of Sheetrock and over-painting, consolidation of the original surface, cutting the mural into blocks and removing the blocks, construction of a masonry support, installation of the blocks, a final cleaning and varnishing and in-painting.
�Magic in Medicine� and �Modern Medicine� by Charles Alston, each a 17-foot by 9-foot oil on canvas, completed in 1940: Stabilization of lifting of paint, removal and retention of original architectural details, lead abatement, relining onto a new fabric, and adhesion of the relined painting to panels.
�Modern Surgery and Anesthesia� by Alfred Crimi, a 250-foot fresco completed in 1936: Removal of all surface buildup, stabilization of weak areas of paint and plaster, removal of the plaster border, salvage of the wainscot, marble cornice and bronze medallion, detachment of the fresco and remounting on a panel, complete cleaning and in-painting.

The Authority estimates that the preservation project will cost about $2 million.

At the event today, Ms. Gridley noted, �I�d like to recognize Mayor Bloomberg for his continued support of HHC�s mission. We thank HHC President Alan Aviles and his predecessors, Dr. Benjamin Chu and Dr. Luis Marcos, for past support of the Dormitory Authority as HHC�s construction partner.�

John V. Andrus is the Dormitory Authority�s Chief Project Manager for the Harlem Hospital modernization, assisted by Yasmin Nunez. The Art Commission of the City of New York is also part of the mural conservation project.

For more information, contact Press Officer Claudia Hutton at (518) 257 3382, or CHutton@dasny.org or Renelda Walker of Harlem Hospital Center at (212) 939-1320.

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