Summer is drawing to a close and Labor Day is the last chance for New Yorkers to sit out on The Green at Lincoln Center. “We hope you’ve enjoyed the sunshine and open-air performances on The Green this summer at Restart Stages! If you haven’t stopped by yet, here’s your last chance before the installation is taken down,” organizers posted today.
There are still a couple of upcoming events. Preeti Vasudevan and company Thresh Dance are on The Green this Thursday evening and Storytime for families and kids is finishing off the summer program at midday on Saturday.
Back in May, Lincoln Center rolled out the green carpet with a “participatory public art installation” covering its 14,000 square foot concrete plaza. The installation was popular with New Yorkers (and their pups) who got to wander the artificial lawns around the Revson Fountain.
Broadway set designer and MacArthur Genius grantee Mimi Lien reimagined the center for the outdoor program — and came up with “The GREEN” to contrast the classic stark white architecture of the arts complex. She described the area in front of the Metropolitan Opera House as “a town green, a place to gather.”
“I wanted to make a place where you could lie on a grassy slope and read a book all afternoon,” Lien explained. “Get a coffee and sit in the sun. Bring your babies and frolic in the grass. Have a picnic lunch with co-workers.”
New York Public Library for Performing Arts offered books to relax with. The artificial grass was made of recyclable material with a high soy content, sourced from American farms.
The plaza will continue to be open from 9am to midnight until Monday, September 6 — the grass will be removed on Tuesday.