LES Partnership Seeks Expansion of the ‘100 Gates Project’ into Upper Manhattan and Staten Island

The 100th gate at Katz’s, August 2016

The 100 Gates Project is growing out of its birth neighborhood and namesake mural count. In other words, the initiative is expanding beyond the Lower East Side and higher than the century mark in its title.

According to a recent job posting by project organizers at the Lower East Side Partnership, the plan is to gain a foothold in additional areas across the Five Boroughs. “Upper Manhattan” and Staten Island are both singled out as contenders.

Here’s more. Note the admission that the artwork (and by extension, the artists) is a “community development tool” to help “beautify neighborhoods” (i.e. gentrification) to “improve conditions for economic growth.”

The program is designed as a community development tool that is geared towards combatting illegal graffiti while beautifying neighborhoods and improving conditions for economic growth as well as for quality of life. The program is grant-supported and comes at no cost to merchants and property owners that participate. A modest stipend is built into program operations to compensate artists for materials and installation.

The 100 Gates Project is looking for an entry-level Public Arts Coordinator (PAC) to help grow the project into additional neighborhoods in upper Manhattan and on Staten Island. If you’re applying for this position you are a responsible, independent and fearless self-starter. In these new neighborhoods, the PAC and will be responsible for working with local merchants and artists, devising a way to successfully replicate the project in new locations.

The 100 Gates Project had a rather inauspicious start. Skateboarder Billy Rohan first conceived of the neighborhood project three years ago with a trio of murals on lower Essex Street. One of the original pieces was overwritten last week with a Harold Hunter tribute.