Forgotten Delights Press Releases

TO BE SENT PRESS RELEASES, EMAIL comments@forgottendelights.com

5/3/08 "Forgotten Delights Sculpture Tour: City Hall to Battery Park"

4/30/08 "The World Trade Center Memorial Reconsidered" (walking tour of memorials in Battery Park, ending at the World Trade Center site)

Forgotten Delights Sculpture Tours, Walking Tour 1: City Hall to Battery Park

 (New York, NY - May 3, 2008) On Sunday, May 18, Dianne Durante, creator of the Forgotten Delights website, will conduct a walking tour of outdoor sculptures in the area from City Hall to Battery Park. Among them are representations of New York in colonial times, Washington’s inauguration, two media moguls, the spirit of 19th-c. capitalism, the energy and unpredictability of the stock market, and remnants of the New York Coliseum.

"These sculptures can make you stop, look, and think when you'd swear your brain was too tired to function," writes Dr. Durante, who finds these works a constant source of inspiration, provocation and amusement. Several of the sculptures in the tour are discussed in Dr. Durante’s Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide (New York University Press, 2007). The tour will include poems, quotations, and perhaps a burst of song.

The tour starts at the southwest corner of Chambers and Centre Sts., near the Greeley statue. It lasts about 2 hours and involves 1-1.5 miles of walking. Price: $15 per person. Reservations are not required, but those who send email addresses will be notified of cancellation if the weather is foul.

Upcoming Forgotten Delights tours include Tompkins Square to Abingdon Square (Sun. 6/15), Washington Square and Union Square (Sun. 7/20), and Madison Square to Herald Square (Sun. 8/17). For details, see  http://www.forgottendelights.com/Tours.htm

Dr. Durante is a freelance art historian and researcher whose passions include outdoor representational sculpture in New York, a field she feels has been neglected for decades - hence the name of her website, "Forgotten Delights" (www.ForgottenDelights.com). Over the past 6 years she has accumulated thousands of photos of such sculptures and compiled a database with information gleaned from New York guidebooks, the Parks Department, the New York Times and other periodicals, and many other sources. Her book Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide was published in 2007 by New York University Press.

For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Dianne Durante at 718-218-9266 or dldurante@earthlink.net.

The WTC Memorial Reconsidered: What Do We Want Our Great-Grandchildren to See?

(New York, NY - April 19, 2008) "How often do you get to influence what your great-grandchildren will see?" asks Dianne Durante, creator of www.ForgottenDelights.com. "Dozens of monuments in New York are well over 150 years old. The World Trade Center memorial is likely to be with us for at least that long. We ought to make sure it speaks eloquently, rather than merely being an inoffensive place-holder."

The official competition for a memorial to the victims of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center began in April 2003. Among the requirements for entries were that the memorial site provide an area for quiet contemplation, another area for families and loved ones of the victims, and yet another area to serve as the resting place for unidentified remains from the site.

The competition drew a whopping 5,201 entries. In January 2004, a 13-member jury composed of artists, architects, a member of the victims’ families, and representatives of New York City and New York State governments announced the winner: Reflecting Absence, by Michael Arad and Peter Walker. Reflecting Absence includes two reflecting pools, waterfalls, a multitude of trees, an underground museum, and a list of victims’ names. The cost of construction is currently estimated at over half a billion dollars, with an additional $40 million per year for maintenance.

In the four years since the winner was announced, critics have attacked the placement of various elements and the cost of Reflecting Absence. Dr. Durante criticizes it on more fundamental grounds: because it is strictly non-representational, it cannot evoke memories and emotions as effectively as works that show something identifiable. She plans to offer a tour in which participants will visit representational memorials in Battery Park, then walk to the World Trade Center site to consider the winning entry for the memorial there.

"I don't want to tell people what to like or dislike, but I do want their choice to be as well informed as possible. They ought to see and feel how much more effective and evocative representational sculpture is than abstract sculpture or landscape architecture."

The tour will meet at the Ericsson statue in Battery Park 5/4/08 at 2 p.m., and last about 1.5 hours. Cost: $15 per person.

Dr. Durante is a freelance art historian and researcher whose passions include outdoor representational sculpture in New York, a field she feels has been neglected for decades - hence the name of her website, "Forgotten Delights" (www.ForgottenDelights.com). Over the past 6 years she has accumulated thousands of photos of such sculptures and compiled a database with information gleaned from New York guidebooks, the Parks Department, the New York Times and other periodicals, and many other sources. Her book Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide was published in 2007 by New York University Press.

For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Dianne Durante at 917-218-9266 or dldurante@earthlink.net.

 # # #

Send comments or questions to comments@forgottendelights.com