Lenapeway (2016) was a site-specific installation on lower Broadway that encouraged people to acknowledge native land. It realigned the spine of New York – Broadway – with its Indigenous heritage given it was, and continues to be, a Lenape pathway.
At the center of the window was a map of Native settlements layered over a digital reconstruction of pre-colonial Manaháhtaan created by ecologist Dr. Eric Sanderson. This was created in collaboration with The Wayfinding Project at the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU.
This was on 24-hour view in the street-level windows of 715 Broadway (at Washington Place) from October 10, 2016 (Indigenous Peoples’ Day) to December 9, 2016. The location of the installation, which was viewable from the sidewalk 24/7 and is co-sponsored by NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, marks the intersection of the main Lenape trail and a side-trail that traverses through present-day Washington Square Park. To enrich the installation, Glow and The Wayfinding Project have partnered with NYU Grounds Manager George Reis to create a tour of NYU’s native plant gardens some of which are situated along the original Lenape trail. This hour-long excursion (Tuesday, October 18, 2016 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM) and sensorial experience begins at 715 Broadway—the site of the installation—and takes guests to four of NYU’s eleven native plant gardens and through Washington Square Park.
The landscape rendering featured on the centerpiece lightbox was by Markley Boyer / The Mannahatta Project / Wildlife Conservation Society from research described in Eric W. Sanderson's Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City (Abrams, 2009). Lightbox design: Abbott Miller, Pentagram Design for the Museum of the City of New York.
“Drawing on scholarship by the Bronx Zoo's Wildlife Conservation Society ecologist Eric Sanderson on the flora and fauna of Manhattan before Europeans arrived—when there were estuaries where there are now skyscrapers, and the island boasted more more microclimates and biodiversity zones than present-day Yellowstone National Park—Glow’s work with The Wayfinding Project also invites visitors to consider what deep knowledge of land and water would mean in the context of present-day Manhattan.”
Landscape rendering by Markley Boyer / The Mannahatta Project / Wildlife Conservation Society from research described in Eric W. Sanderson's Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City (Abrams, 2009). Lightbox design: Abbott Miller, Pentagram Design for the Museum of the City of New York.