Empire of Art

New York is a limitless journey, a mecca of variety, and a municipality of motion. It is a metropolis of diversity. It is a masterpiece that can be interpreted individually by every spectator. No wonder there are so many alternative titles for NYC: the concrete jungle, the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps, the city of opportunity, and most significantly, the art center of the world. New York City is the capital of arts and culture, as no other metropolis on the globe has such an unlimited palette of virtuosities. From Chelsea Piers to Broadway to 5^th Avenue all the way to Lincoln Center, every intersection in the city offers a colorful release through self- expression.

Every town in America may have a “Main Street”, but none can compare to Broadway, the yellow brick road of Emerald City, or NYC. In particular, it is the musicals that make Broadway shine. The combination of dance, singing, and drama is invigorating, and it is this arrangement that has led a musical tradition dating over 150 years. A musical is a perception of life where emotions are sung and conflicts are solved with synchronized dance. The overture begins, and the audience is flown away from reality. Talent is celebrated, tears are shed, and songs are stuck in heads and replayed over and over, all the way home on a late night subway ride. Broadway is full of surprises. It is evolving with new creations and innovative revivals, young prodigies and returning legends. Theatres remain stagnant, but their garments alter. Mary Poppins is now Aladdin, Spiderman is now On the Town, In the Heights is now If/ Then, and the list continues as this constant flow of creativity only grows in magnitude. Natives wait on early morning student rush lines to make the latest performances on a budget; tourists spend the whole week debating which show to see, and theatre geeks revisit their favorite musicals on any free night.

Students splurge on an exuberant nightlife, but I binge on Broadway. In my eighteen years as a New Yorker, I have enjoyed Phantom of the Opera four times, Mary Poppins twice, and thirty other musicals, all shedding an extraordinary light. Each show has its strengths. One may exhibit complex choreography, while another may awe its viewers with spectacular vocals, yet others may surprise audiences with high tech sets and stunning costumes. Every art form in a Broadway musical is already a wonder, but when combined into a single production and placed on an internationally renowned street, such a show becomes a significant part of the capital of the arts.

The numerous museums and galleries of New York City also contribute to its role as the cultural mecca of the present day world. Rarely do cities have such a great variety of exhibitions, where one can experience works from every period of art history in a days walk. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, visitors can journey through the halls of Cycladic art, dating back thousands of years and find themselves only a few steps away from a work by Vincent Van Gogh. The Met symbolizes cultural unity, as African artifacts are only one flight away from European Oil Painting. Around the world in 80 days? With such artistic institutions, an individual can circumnavigate the earth while remaining in one city. A few blocks uptown of the Met, the Guggenheim awaits. With its unique architecture and fascinating ever-changing contemporary collections, one can never be weary. Enjoy a play on light by James Turrell, or analyze the fluid style of Italian Futurism, all in one cylindrical building. A little further downtown lies the Museum of Modern Art, where on Friday afternoons, the floor surrounding The Starry Night feels more like Times Square instead of a museum. The MoMA stimulates visitors with art from the present day that stifles the imagination of every sightseer. Tourists from all over the globe meet here to sit in a room of water lilies and take some lively photographs at the sculpture garden. The Whitney Museum, The Frick Collection, The Cloisters, The American Museum of Natural History, The Museum of Art and Design, The Brooklyn Museum are only a few names on a long list of opportunities for artistic exploration. There are 83 museums over the five boroughs of NYC, but the cities 500 private galleries are not factored into this extensive catalog. No other city in the world can provide such a great variety of work on display; thus, New York continues to be the capital of the arts.

New York may also be the capital of overpriced rent, dirty streets, blistering summers, and delayed subway trains, but none of these conflictions can replace this metropolis’s role as the cultural center of the world. “Artists are just among the many people who come here,” stated Justin Davidson, New York’s architecture and classical music critic. In a New York Times article from 2012, writer Jennifer Schuessler questions if New York continues to be the artistic capital of the world. Even though some critics believe that it is one of many cultural centers, the article explains that ‘the greatness of the city is in its unevenness.” Evidently, Cynthia Ozick was accurate in explaining that this city is ever- changing in her essay, “The Synthetic Sublime”. However, NYC continues to grow its artistic resume everyday, as this transformation is a positive one.

New York is the cultural capital of America, and the world. Broadway and its numerous museums are only part of the reason why the Big Apple is given this title. These venues allow for a sneak peek of the cities wonders, but Lincoln Center, the diverse neighborhoods of The Melting Pot, off- Broadway shows, and even street performances are all puzzle pieces of arts in New York City. It is this vast compilation of innovative works that give the concrete jungle its vibrancy. Accordingly, New York City is paramount in cultural capacity.