146. Celebrating The Gates in Central Park and the Power of Public Art

02/21/25 • 21 min

20 years ago, the late Christo and Jeanne-Claude transformed Central Park with The Gates, a temporary public art installation featuring 7,503 saffron-colored gates adorned with free-flowing fabric. After being elected as Mayor of New York City, Mike Bloomberg worked with the artists to bring their vision to life.

The results? Over its 16 days on display, the public art piece drew more than four million visitors to Central Park in the middle of winter and brought an estimated $254 million in economic activity to the city.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were known for their site-specific, large-scale public artworks, which often reimagined landmarks or landscapes into surreal spaces with objects, fabrics, textures, and colors. From surrounding 11 islands in Miami’s Biscayne Bay with bright pink fabric, to wrapping Paris’s Pont Neuf bridge with silky, golden fabric, the pair created bold and brilliant outdoor projects that spanned the globe and garnered international acclaim for their expansiveness and originality.

The point of their installations? It was simple; no deeper meaning was contained within the works, but they provided visitors with joy, beauty, and new perspectives on familiar spaces.

For a limited time, the public can experience a portion of The Gates through an augmented reality experience in Central Park powered by the Bloomberg Connects app and learn more about Christo and Jeanne-Claude's NYC projects at Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City, the latest exhibition at The Shed.

On this episode of Follow the Data, Megan Sheekey sits down with Patti Harris, CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Vladimir Yavachev, Director of Projects at the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, to dive deeper into the 20th anniversary of The Gates, the prolific life and works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and the critical role public art plays in cities around the world.

The point of their installations? It was simple; no deeper meaning was contained within the works, but they provided visitors with joy, beauty, and new perspectives on familiar spaces.

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145. In Defense of Democracy

Around the world, public leaders are confronting a growing distrust in government.

In these divided times, a mayor’s work becomes increasingly important. As the governing body closest to their residents, they are often the ones left reminding their communities of what we have in common—and why those things are worth fighting for.

So how can local leaders proactively take the lead on building social solidarity, and rebuilding trust in government, from the bottom up? We looked to Istanbul, Turkey for a bold answer.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is addressing this increasingly global challenge in his city with his Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge-winning project, Pay-It-Forward, which leverages municipal data to match residents in need with community members that can provide support. From helping neighbors pay utility bills during the pandemic to rallying global aid during a national earthquake disaster, this city-led platform brings people together to solve challenges. Since its inception, it has delivered over $12 million USD in aid.

On this episode of Follow the Data, James Anderson, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Government Innovation program, joins Mayor İmamoğlu on stage at Bloomberg CityLab 2024 in Mexico City to discuss the state of democracy from the ground floor of cities, and how solutions like Pay-It-Forward offer an inspiring path for mayors around the world to build social cohesion locally and around the world, at scale.