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Empire State Books, an Imprint of Fordham University Press   In 1970, the former Bell Telephone Laboratories in Manhattan was transformed into Westbeth, an ambitious experiment in urban renewal that became the world’s largest and longest-running artists’ residence. Home to generations of visual artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and performers, Westbeth has fostered creativity, community, and activism for over fifty years.  From legendary photographer Diane Arbus and conceptual artist Hans Haacke to avant-garde theater pioneers like Joe Chaikin and Gloria

Read the original article from the New York Times about Westbeth’s recent overhaul!

Photos by a late Westbeth resident, Arlene Gottfried 

The arts collective The Kitchen has been in operation since 1971 and now is based at Westbeth. The Kitchen brings together live performances, exhibition-making, and public programming under one roof,  and cultivates wild thought, risky play, and innovative and experimental making, encouraging artists and cultural workers alike to defy boundaries.  

The Martha Graham Dance Company and school is housed on the top floor of Westbeth, in space formerly used by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Lithe dancers are frequent riders of the elevators in the lobby up to the studio, that has million-dollar views of the NY skyline.

New York’s favorite tourist destination is the High Line. This elevated park built on abandoned rail beds is blocks from Westbeth, and is the continuation of the rail line that formerly transected the building when it served as the Bell Telephone Research Labs.

Photographer David Plakke’s Tribes Project documents the heart and soul of New Yorkers.

Westbeth visual artist Veronica Ryan’s work included in 2022 Whitney Museum Biennial.

The DeGrummond Collection holds more than 35 books by prolific author of children’s literature and Judaica, the late Miriam Chaikin. Her papers are also archived in their Special Collections, available for scholars.

Poet Ed Field’s paean to the horrors of war made into award-winning short film. Ed reads his poem A Minor Accident of War recalling being shot down during WWII, see and listen here in an article in The Advocate.

Westbeth puppet masters Ralph Lee (Landshark!) and Penny Jones featured in major exhibit Puppets of New York at Museum for the City of NY.

Whitney Museum Staff hold annual show at Westbeth Gallery, building collaboration between two important NYC art institutions.

Village Preservation’s oral histories recount the origins and development of Westbeth, including interviews with Tod Williams, Richard Meier, and Joan Kaplan Davidson, Peter Cott, Dixon Bain.

Village Preservation holds oral histories for many Westbeth luminaries, including Christina Maile, George Cominskie, Ralph Lee, and  Peter Ruta.

Westbeth achieves Landmark Status with help from Village Preservation. 

Famed Rock and Roll Photographer Bob Gruen honored at Music Photo Gallery.

Iconoclastic Conceptual Artist 1934-2024 New York Times She worked in collage, photography, performance, video and installation, and she dealt forthrightly with the complexities of race and gender… HyperAllergic By Rhea Nayyar | December 13, 2024 From her newspaper collages to her performance persona Mademoiselle Bourgeoise Noire, O’Grady subverted hierarchies from a Black feminist perspective… An Appreciation by Mariane Ibrahim Lorraine O’Grady (1934–2024) was born in Boston to West Indian parents. A talented scholar, she was educated at

New York Times Style Magazine, Arts and Letters. “As cultural institutions face an existential crisis over who funds them and how, the 88-year-old artist Hans Haacke is still making curators and collectors clutch their pearls.

THE EXPERIENCE Embark on an immersive, self-guided journey through one of Manhattan’s oldest and most fascinating neighborhoods, Greenwich Village.

Reminiscences Over 50 Years By Westbeth Residents In honor of our 50th Anniversary, current and former residents share their stories of life at Westbeth through the years.

Vera Giraudo’s Insider View of Life at Westbeth The West Village is one of Manhattan’s most upscale neighborhoods…