Museum of the City of New York Community Collecting Initiative

Focus

The Museum of the City of New York is collecting artifacts and photographs which speak to the events of 2020 in NYC – specifically the pandemic and racial justice movement – so that we will be able to tell the story of this incredibly challenging time to future generations.

History

Early in the pandemic, the Museum recognized the historic nature of the moment for our city and its distinctive urbanism, and we launched a social media engagement campaign soliciting images via Instagram using the hashtag #CovidStoriesNYC. We later called for images speaking to the growing momentum of racial equity activism in New York City following the killing of George Floyd, using an existing hashtag #ActivistNY, which is linked to our dedicated gallery, Activist New York. 

Those images informed our understanding of the pandemic throughout the five boroughs, and ultimately helped the Museum to develop a specific collecting plan for COVID-related artifacts. A recent grant from the Puffin Foundation has expanded our ability to collect, catalog and digitize images and artifacts related to the contemporary moment in social activism. 

Collection

The majority of the items collected have been artifacts, and a select group of photographs has been identified for the permanent collections from the thousands submitted through the open call and social media campaign.

Form of Collection

We are collecting physical objects

Emphasis

Our collecting encompasses all five boroughs of the city.

Time Period

Our collecting began with the start of the pandemic and is ongoing.

Public Access

We hope to eventually share catalog records and digital images via our online Collections Portal at - http://collections.mcny.org.

Director

Museum of the City of New York

Contact Person

Email: collections@mcny.org

Website: www.mcny.org