Historic Art Restoration Project at Kingsborough Houses in Brooklyn

Photo by Public Housing Community Fund

Restoration of the Exodus and Dance frieze is a culmination of a multi-year effort led by NYCHA and public housing residents to save and restore the historic artwork and preserve the community’s unique history through an oral history project, art programming, and soon-to-be-installed storywalk 

Today was the cut of the ribbon on a historic art conservation project in the Kingsborough Houses, a 16-acre public housing complex located in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. The project was partly funded and made possible by the Mellon Foundation and New York City Council funds. 

This effort is a part of NYCHA’s Connected Communities program, which is focused on transforming and modernizing open spaces by implementing public-private partnerships. The program’s efforts are based on participatory planning and design and strive to enhance physical and social connections between residents and their communities.

The Exodus and Dance restoration is the project’s first phase and is a groundbreaking endeavor that transforms the historic 80-foot frieze, Exodus and Dance, created by renowned artist Richmond Barthé in 1939 and installed on the campus in 1941, depicts scenes of biblical imagery and dance motifs to convey spirituality, community, and joy. The work is the recipient of the 2025 Moses Award for Preservation Projects by the New York Landmark Conservancy. The restoration involved carefully removing the frieze from the wall and transporting it to a conservation studio and building a new wall to serve as the base for the frieze.

Commonly referred to as “The Wall” by Kingsborough residents, the restoration preserves the community’s deep connection to Black migration, theater, and dance history. The frieze is the largest piece of art created by Barthé, who is widely recognized for his sculptural work collected by and displayed at the Whitney Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Through a unique blend of art conservation and community engagement, the project celebrates and reflects the rich cultural heritage of NYCHA residents and their storied histories in New York City, fostering a deeper connection between the past and present. 

A second phase, organized by a storywalk design and community engagement consultant team and informed by a stakeholder advisory group, includes storywalks highlighting the community’s shared histories, memories, and aspirations. Creative Urban Alchemy LLC, led by architect Ifeoma Ebo, and Jerome Hafered Studio DPC worked through an iterative design process with residents to culminate in a vibrant public space. In addition, the open space around the frieze will be transformed by improved lighting, seating, and new community-inspired murals on the backside of the wall. Before his passing, the project was led by the artist-in-residence, Larry Weekes, President of the Fulton Art Fair, Inc. The expected completion for the storywalk is Fall 2025.

In 2019, NYCHA received $1.8 million in funding for this project from former City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and former City Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel, which helped lead to the additional $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. This funding supported the capital restoration, an artist-in-residency program, oral history project, and the installation of NYCHA’s first storywalk to be completed later this year. The project aims to set a precedent for similar initiatives across NYCHA developments, inspiring future partnerships and investments in art conservation, artist-in-residence programs, and community engagement.

Together, the project elements seek to preserve Kingsborough Houses’ cultural heritage and Black history. The collaborative programs between the PHCF and NYCHA enrich participatory planning and design and strive to enhance physical and social connections between residents and their communities. 

About the Public Housing Community Fund 

The Public Housing Community Fund is an independent not-for-profit organization that creates and leverages resources and relationships to enhance the opportunities and quality of life for New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents and their communities while uplifting the importance of public housing in New York City. www.communityfund.nyc.

About the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)       

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the largest public housing authority in North America, was created in 1934 to provide decent, affordable housing for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers. NYCHA is home to 1 in 17 New Yorkers, providing affordable housing to 520,808 authorized residents through public housing and Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) programs as well as Section 8 housing. NYCHA has 177,569 apartments in 2,411 buildings across 335 conventional public housing and PACT developments. In addition, NYCHA connects residents to critical programs and services from external and internal partners, with a focus on economic opportunity, youth, seniors, and social services. With a housing stock that spans all five boroughs, NYCHA is a city within a city.  

About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.

About Weeksville Heritage Center

Weeksville Heritage Center is an historic site and cultural center in Central Brooklyn that uses education, arts and a social justice lens to preserve, document and inspire engagement with the history of Weeksville, one of the largest free Black communities in pre-Civil War America, and the Historic Hunterfly Road Houses.

About Fulton Art Fair

Established in 1958, the Fulton Art Fair (FAF) annually exhibits fine visual art of both renowned and emerging artists from the USA, Africa & the Caribbean. Fulton Art Fair was for the exhibition, promotion, and publication of the fine and performing arts in the City & State of New York, consisting primarily of artists of African American descent; the stimulation and encouragement of community interest in the field of fine and performing arts, the development and achievement of creativity as an expression of the community’s status and heritage.