Place Matters' "Place Markers"
Your Guide to the Lower East Side
Locations: Lower East Side Tenement Museum, PS 42, St. Teresa's Church, and St. Augustine's Church {signs at Seward Park & Straus Square removed, Feb 2008}.

Place Matters' new public art project celebrates people, places, and community life on the Lower East Side. Over two dozen signs installed at six separate sidewalk locations on the Lower East Side capture local history first hand. With photographs and text in five languages, these "place markers" weave personal stories and cherished memories directly into the landscape, often right where the stories took place. A Yiddish-speaking type-setter, Puerto Rican garment worker, and World's-Fair-showgirl-turned-photographer are a few of the New Yorkers who tell tales and share experiences in Your Guide to the Lower East Side.

Click here for a map of sign locations, an online version of our 30-page catalog, and information about how to purchase a printed catalog.

The project was made possible with support from the E.H.A. Foundation, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and other Place Matters funders. Permission to install signs was granted by City of New York / Parks & Recreation.