CITYWORKS

THE CITY IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

exhibition summary

NYSCI is located in the heart of Queens – one of the five glorious boroughs that make up the one-of-a-kind NYC. So how much do we really understand about this place we live in and depend on daily?

The CityWorks exhibition invites our visitors to explore the many moving parts that keep a city moving. They will dig into how major city systems work, and activate this knowledge by considering the future of the city. The exhibition will raise some of the big challenges that cities face today and tomorrow, and will promote creative problem-solving through various means; such as tech and innovation, natural system management, and adjustments in actions or behaviors.

There is no single solution to creating a sustainable future city. In this exhibition we aim to encourage systems thinking, through play and open-ended experimentation, to help visitors understand how different city infrastructures function and interconnect, and how even small actions can produce big effects when they scale up.

LOGISTICS:

This exhibition will live in the 6,000 sq ft gallery space in our Upper North Wing. Our primary audience includes family units — exhibits should aim for middle-school reading level, with design and content that is also appropriate and engaging for younger children, as well as teens and adults.

CityWorks is a permanent exhibition that will live for 10+ years.

We are currently nearing the end of our schematic design phase. In this phase, we are finalizing the exhibition framework, working out an exhibit list and narrative, sketching, and developing the aesthetic vision. From here, we will move into design development, where all of these components are fully worked out with final design and text*.

The launch date is set for early 2025!

*To make sure we're accurately and appropriately portraying information in our exhibits, we like to check our work. Stay tuned! We may reach out to ask for your assistance in reviewing content (if you're available and interested, of course!).

CONTENT AREAS:

TRANSPORTATION - How do subways, buses, ferries, and sidewalks work? And how might they change to accommodate a growing population, increased stress due to the transportation of goods, transit efficiency and environmental impact?

WATER/WASTEWATER - How does NYC get clean water in, and manage the dirty water going on? Where does it come from, and what processes are involved? Where are there breaks in the system, and how might it be better?

SANITATION - NYC makes a lot of waste... so what then? Explore various waste streams and their impacts. How might we reconsider our waste management for the future?

URBAN DEVELOPMENT - How/why/what do we build? Who makes these decisions? And in a city as densely built as NYC, how do we manage change in efficient and responsible ways?

CONTENT THREADS: [These are major themes that run throughout the exhibition, showing up again and again.]

NATURAL SYSTEMS

Throughout the exhibition, we will explore how the natural world affects city systems, and vice versa.

PEOPLE-CENTRIC

We will enter systems thinking from the individual's perspective. We aim to make meaning through tangible experience and work up to high-level system scales.

SUSTAINABILITY + RESILIENCE

When considering the future, visitors will explore the many possible solutions to major challenges. There is no single, "right" answer.

LENSES: [These describe some of the methods we will take to approach the content.]

SCALE

How do small choices scale up?

Size - How do city systems work on an individual scale vs neighborhood vs city-wide?

Time - How do we consider solutions for now, for 10, 50, 100+ years down the road?

VISIBLE & INVISIBLE

Much of the city's infrastructure is invisible — hidden in plain sight, or buried underground.

To help our visitors see the world in a new way, CityWorks aims to peel back the concrete curtain to reveal the inner workings that keep the city running.

Photo credit: Andrew Garn

TONE:

NYC isn't just any city... it can be iconic, amazing, quirky, unique, infuriating, astonishing, terrifying, mesmerizing, inspirational, heartbreaking, smelly, or any combination of the above. The exhibit experience, down to the last little detail, will tap into New York's specificity to reflect this rich diversity. We want visitors to see their own city experiences in the space (and recall their museum experience when they're out and about!). It should feel familiar and full of life, like the best kind of inside joke.

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