New Lincoln Center Mural Kicks Off Project to Improve Western Access

Earlier this week, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts unveiled a mural adorning construction fencing along Amsterdam Avenue, marking the western edge of LCPA’s Upper West Side campus. The mural was designed by Vanesa Álvarez, a Spanish artist based in Brooklyn. Derval Fairweather, a local artist who grew up in public housing on Amsterdam adjacent to Lincoln Center, assisted Álvarez on the mural, titled The Future We Create.

LCPA collaborated with ArtBridge on the project. The nonprofit was founded in 2008 in order to transform scaffolding, construction fencing, and other unlovely temporary urban spaces into canvases for public art. According to a map on ArtBridge’s website, they’ve organized projects in all five boroughs over the past 18 years.

The colorful Lincoln Center mural will cover fencing on the western edge of Damrosch Park, on Amsterdam Ave. at 62nd St. The park features the distinctive Guggenheim Bandshell, and used to host New York Fashion Week in the spring and fall. It is home to the Big Apple Circus for three months each fall.

The Future We Create is meant to beautify a construction project related to the Lincoln Center West Initiative, which has been in the works since the summer of 2023 and officially got underway this spring. The initiative is intended to improve the way visitors approach LCPA from the Amsterdam side of the campus, as well as add a community garden and outdoor performance spaces. The project is expected to be complete in the summer of 2028.

Alvárez led brainstorming workshops with the public, NYCHA residents, and high school students starting in late 2023, in order to plan her design. “Behind this mural is a history of community: of joy, of color, of people spending time together, creating together, believing in the arts, and being part of making it,” she said, when the mural was finally presented to the public.