Jonathan Kuhn is Director of Art and Antiquities for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

Jonathan Kuhn Compilation

 Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts &amp; Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses the Monitor and Merrimac Monument, celebrating the life of John Ericsson. 

 Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts &amp; Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses 'Strawberry Fields', an installation in Central Park dedicated to John Lennon. 

 Jonathan Kuhn, Director of Arts and Antiquities of NYC Parks, sheds light on the John Ericsson sculpture in Battery Park. The sculpture depicts Ericsson, a Swedish-American inventor and engineer, who was important in revolutionizing maritime and military technology and travel. 

 Mayor Abraham De Peyster (1657&ndash;1728) was born in New Amsterdam, now known as Manhattan. De Peyster came from a prosperous mercantile family. He was influential in the young city; he had many positions, including alderman, mayor, member of the king&rsquo;s council, and acting governor. By the end of his life, De Peyster was allegedly one of the city&rsquo;s wealthiest inhabitants. The sculpture was removed and put into storage in 2003 to make room for the British Memorial Garden. 

 This sculpture depicts the moment after President Washington took the oath of office, which he did at Federal Hall on Wall Street in 1789. 

 Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts &amp; Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses the Straus Memorial, honoring the lives of Ida and Isidor Straus, who perished on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. 

 Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts &amp; Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses the John F. Kennedy bust in Grand Army Plaza. 

 Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts &amp; Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses 'Dawn of Glory', a memorial to community lives lost in WWI. 

 Jonathan Kuhn, the Director of Art and Antiquities for NYC Parks, discusses the Giovanni Da Verrazzano in Battery Park. Giovanni Da Verrazzano was one of the first European explorers in New York Bay. After the rise of Italian immigration in the early 20th century, the Italian community decided to raise this sculpture in Battery Park. 

 Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts &amp; Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses the statue of Balto, a famous Siberian husky responsible for delivering diphtheria antitoxin to the town of Nome, Alaska. 

 The monument Triumph of the Human Spirit is one of the world's largest site-specific installations, venerating the experience of African American enslavement. Towering at over fifty feet and weighing more than 300 tons, the massive black granite sculpture was built on a rediscovered African burial ground. The sculpture depicts an abstract female antelope form, mounted on a boat shaped base. According to the artist, the piece is inspired by "Chi Wara" an antelope effigy from West Africa that symbolizes a responsibility for continuing the next generation and for celebrating a successful harvest. Triumph of the Human Spirit serves as a monument to honor all Africans brought to America but is also dedicated to all ancestors as well as the future generations to come. 

Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts & Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses 'Puerto Rican Sun', by Rafael Ferrer, which celebrates Puerto Rican culture.

 Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts &amp; Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses the Gay Liberation Monument in Christopher St. Park, commemorating the Stonewall Riots of 1969. 

 Located in an alcove on the west side of the park, this ornamental fountain is one of the oldest in the city's parks. Consisting of a bronze statuary group atop a granite stepped pedestal, it was crafted by German sculptor Karl Adolph Donndorf (1835&ndash;1916), and donated by philanthropist Daniel Willis James (1832&ndash;1907) to promote public health as well as the virtue of charity. With completion of the Croton Reservoir aqueduct in 1842, New York City became the beneficiary of a consistent supply of fresh water, its citizens previously having relied upon (often contaminated) well water. This advance in public health was the cause of great celebration, marked by fountains erected soon after in City Hall Park and Union Square. By the late 19th century, numerous outdoor decorative drinking fountains had been erected throughout the city for the benefit of "man and beast". Few survived to modern times, and the James Fountain, with its lavish sculptural detailing, is one of the finer examples still extant. This fountain was conceived by its donor Willis and businessman and philanthropist Theodore Roosevelt Sr. They retained the services of Professor J. Leonard Corning of Morristown, New Jersey to assist in identifying an appropriate sculptor to realize the project whose goal, in Corning's words at the dedication, was "the threefold intent of contributing to the physical comfort of the people, and at the same time teaching a lesson of religion and cultivating a healthy appreciation of art." In 1877 they selected Donndorf, newly installed as the head of the sculpture department in the Art Academy of Stuttgart, Germany. Donndorf also completed statuary on the massive Luther reformation monument in the German city of Worms, after the death of its designer and his mentor, Ernst Riestchel, and is responsible for many other public statues in Germany, such as those of Bach and Goethe in Carlsbad. For the fountain in Union Square he created a figural grouping with biblical a 

 Jonathan Kuhn, Director of Art and Antiquities in NYC Parks, talks about the Benjamin Franklin sculpture located across from City Hall in Lower Manhattan. The sculpture is located on Publisher's Row; Franklin of course was very influential in publishing, being a statesman, and negotiation. 

 Jonathan Kuhn, director of Arts &amp; Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, discusses the Eleanor Roosevelt Monument in Riverside Park. 

 Jonathan Kuhn, Director of Arts and Antiquities in NYC Parks, talks about the sculpture in City Hall Park from the late 19th century depicts Nathan Hale. Hale was a figure in the Revolution who disguised himself as a Dutch schoolteacher to infiltrate the British ranks to gain intelligence, but was captured and hung for treason. He remains a symbol of the Revolution. 

Located at the southeast corner of Madison Square Park this forthright, bronze full-standing statue of political figure Roscoe Conkling (1829-1888) is by the distinguished artist John Quincy Adams Ward (1840-1910), and dates to 1893. On March 12, 1888, while on his way to the New York Club at 25th Street, Conkling suffered severe exposure in Union Square, during the famous blizzard which gripped the city on that day. As a result his health rapidly declined, and he died on April 18th, 1888. Five years later friends of Conkling petitioned the Mayor and Park Board to erect a sculpture of him in Union Square. Park officials believed Conkling not of a stature to warrant placement of this work alongside existing sculptures in the park of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and the Marquis de Lafayette, but granted permission at the present location of the work. Later referred to as &ldquo;the Dean of American Sculptors,&rdquo; Ward contributed nine sculptures to the parks of New York, among them Horace Greeley (1890) now in City Hall Park, Alexander Holley (1888) in Washington Square Park, William Earl Dodge (1885), now in Bryant Park, Henry Ward Beecher (1891) in Columbus Park, Brooklyn, and The Indian Hunter (1869), William Shakespeare (1872), The Pilgrim (1885), and the Seventh Regiment Memorial (1874) in Central Park. Ward&rsquo;s depiction of Conkling is a sensitive and vigorous portrait of him posed, as Conkling&rsquo;s wife requested, while delivering a speech before the United States Senate. In early December 1893, the eight-foot high, 1,200 pound statue was hoisted onto its granite pedestal, and installed&mdash;in deference to the Conkling&rsquo;s heirs&mdash;and installed without any formal ceremony. In the summer of 2000 as part of the redesign and renovation of Madison Square Park the sculpture was relocated 20 feet to a landscaped area, and in 2001 the sculpture was conserved by the Citywide Monuments Conservation Program.

Jonathan Kuhn Compilation

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