The Gates of Tompkins

Tompkins Square Park Re-Design Campaign

The Gates of Tompkins exhibit, which is at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space in NYC, will open on Thursday, May 28th at 4:00pm. It will be open to the public weekly on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 12-5pm until June 21st.

After a financial crisis that affected New York City in the 70s and 80s , Lower East Side residents took back their neighborhood, fixed up buildings, and reclaimed the gardens, creating a sustainable, community way of life. Tompkins Square Park became an amazing example of the community's vibrance, cultivating music, art, and theater. However, once the city returned to a stronger financial position, authorities sought to take back community housing, gardens, and this new sustainable way of life and undermine these community-based projects. The neighborhood residents put up a fight to stop the gentrification, and Tompkins Square Park became a battleground. A protest encampment was established in the park, and what is known as the Tompkins Square Park Riots went on for several years. Eventually, after using a lot of violence, the city closed the park in 1991 and destroyed the bandshell. When they reopened the park, it was re-designed in a way that discouraged the free exchange of art, music, and public assembly. It has been that way ever since--fences everywhere you look. With this Redesign initiative, we hope to be able to put pressure on the Parks Department to re-design it in a way that maximizes community engagement and brings back the creative spirit of the neighborhood.

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Host or Publisher Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space