In an try and thwart impending eviction, Elizabeth Road Backyard is suing New York Metropolis, arguing that the Manhattan sculpture backyard ought to be allowed to remain put beneath the Visible Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA).
The Elizabeth Road Backyard, a neoclassical sculpture backyard and inexperienced area managed by its namesake nonprofit, was served an eviction discover final October as a part of a metropolis plan to develop an inexpensive housing advanced for low-income and LGBTQ+ seniors on the plot. The backyard secured a brief keep of eviction final fall, delaying additional authorized motion till this month.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, February 18 in america District Court docket for the Southern District of New York, legal professionals for Elizabeth Road Backyard’s Govt Director Joseph Reiver argued that the sculpture backyard is a “single unified sculptural work of visual art.” Underneath VARA, which grants creators of public artworks the fitting to “claim authorship” over these works and forestall their destruction or modification, the backyard’s legal professionals declare that the area is protected.
Elizabeth Road Backyard has hosted free occasions open to the general public, together with poetry readings and stay music. (picture courtesy Liz Radway)
Lawyer Steve Hyman informed Hyperallergic that Elizabeth Road Backyard’s neoclassical design “is further enhanced by human activity, making it a unique social sculpture that warrants protection under [VARA].”
Reiver’s legal professionals argued in Tuesday’s grievance that the backyard was a murals collaboratively authored by Joseph Reiver and his father Allan, who organized statues in a selected manner, planted timber in accordance with the backyard’s neoclassical design, constructed pathways and gates, and curated the flowers that develop there.
Final spring, a federal decide in Iowa prevented the Des Moines Artwork Middle (DMAC)
from demolishing a land artwork set up by artist Mary Miss beneath VARA till the case was settled for practically $1 million final month.
Reiver declined to touch upon the pending litigation.
Elizabeth Road Backyard’s October eviction discover adopted greater than a decade of disputes with the New York Metropolis Housing Authority. As a result of the plot had as soon as supported a public college, town retained possession of the land, renting it out to the late gallerist Allan Reiver, father of Joseph Reiver, as a part of a 1990 month-to-month lease settlement.
A Metropolis Corridor spokesperson informed Hyperallergic that the lawsuit was “a gross attempt to mislead the public and steal public land.”
“Haven Green will provide 100 percent deeply affordable senior housing in a neighborhood with limited affordable options,” the spokesperson continued, referencing the proposed housing advanced, “while also offering over 15,000 square feet of public space, including a garden and public art.”
Reiver’s legal professionals argue the neoclassical design of the backyard makes it a murals.
The backyard’s escalating makes an attempt to remain put coincides with a rising senior housing disaster in New York Metropolis. In line with a report by the nonprofit LiveOn NY launched final July, greater than 300,000 seniors are on the ready listing for inexpensive housing, marking a 50% enhance since 2016.
However Reiver informed Hyperallergic in October that town’s plan was pitting inexperienced area in opposition to inexpensive housing in what he referred to as a “false choice.”
“I’ve been working day in and day out to get affordable housing in this neighborhood, just not at the expense of this [garden],” Reiver mentioned.
Reiver has proposed that town redistribute the housing funds destined for the Elizabeth Road Backyard plot to different websites slated for luxurious housing growth. The backyard has recognized different websites they mentioned might create 705 items of inexpensive housing, versus Haven Inexperienced’s 123 items, and go away the backyard in place.
If town succeeds in taking up the backyard, the legal professionals wrote, the motion could be “prejudicial to the honor” of Joseph Reiver.
Although Allan Reiver had no formal inventive coaching, the lawsuit mentioned, he was a self-taught artist who created a respectable work of Outsider artwork. Earlier than he intervened, the grievance reads, the lot was a “junkyard,” which legal professionals in comparison with a clean canvas.
Charles Birnbaum, president and CEO of the Cultural Panorama Basis, a nonprofit that helps panorama heritage stewards, informed Hyperallergic his group first really useful Elizabeth Road Backyard search VARA safety in 2019.
“It’s a very important work of Outsider art,” Birnbaum mentioned. “There’s nothing like this … It is a destination, and it is an artistic expression that is unlike anything else in New York City and beyond.”