In early 2017, the Museum of the City of New York opened a special and timely installation, Muslim in New York: Highlights from the Photography Collection, featuring 34 historic images of Muslim New Yorkers in the 20th and 21st centuries by photographers Alexander Alland, Ed Graza, Mel Rosenthal, and Robert Gerhardt. The show offers universal human connections and pays tribute to a community that has been part of the United States since its start and serves as a reminder that to be a Muslim in New York is simply to be a New Yorker.
The show is inspired, in part, by the Museum’s desire to respond to the current political climate and its effects on New Yorkers from all backgrounds.
“It was our fastest exhibition ever. Two and a half weeks from concept to presentation,” says Sarah Henry, Chief Curator for the Museum. “It grew out of conversations that we had among museum staff about how we could usefully and valuably contribute to the conversations that are going on in the context of political events right now.”
Press coverage include: NY Times, American Photo, Huffington Post, NewsWeek,
Photo header: Robert Gerhardt, Boy Praying During Ramadan on the Street outside the Mosque Because the Mosque is Full, Parkchester Jame Masjid, Bronx, NY, 2012. Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York and the photographer
