Museum of the City of New York to Open Raise Your Voice: New York Activism

Pro-Vietnam-War Demonstration, New York, 1970, Benedict J. Fernandez, 1970, Museum of the City of New York, 99.150.15

The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) announced Raise Your Voice: New York Activism, a new permanent exhibition opening Friday, September 25, with a press preview on Tuesday, September 22. The exhibition is the inaugural show of the newly established Puffin Foundation Center for Social Activism, a new home at the Museum dedicated to the history and ongoing legacy of civic engagement and social movements in New York City.

Raise Your Voice traces more than 250 years of activism in New York, from the earliest 17th-century petitions to the mass mobilizations of the 21st century, organized around four tactics that generations of New Yorkers have used to drive change: demonstrations, organizing, art and media, and direct action. 

“From the earliest days of this city, New Yorkers have gathered, organized, and spoken out to demand a better city,” said Stephanie Hill Wilchfort, Ronay Menschel Director and President of the Museum of the City of New York. “Raise Your Voice and the Puffin Foundation Center for Social Activism give that long history a permanent home at our Museum, and remind every visitor that they, too, are part of that story. We are deeply grateful to the Puffin Foundation for its generous support in making this new center possible.” 

A History Told in Four Tactics 

Raise Your Voice is organized into four sections that follow how everyday New Yorkers have sought change over time:

Demonstrations traces the evolution of more than 20 protests, from the colonial era to the new millennium, showing how demonstrations grew from small, spontaneous gatherings into large, organized mobilizations. Objects on view depict or were used at these events, including a noisemaker from the Civil War–era draft riots, a woman’s suffrage banner and sash, a 1947 painting by Peter Hopkins of communists and police clashing in Union Square, photography from the first Pride march in 1970, and a collection of protest flyers.

Organizing looks at the often-unseen groundwork behind activism: the planning meetings, notebooks, and campaign strategies that turn causes into movements. Highlights include more than 150 years of political campaign buttons, strike pledge cards from the Longshoremen’s Association, Gloria Steinem’s address book from her decades in the women’s liberation movement, and a sketchbook by artist Molly Crabapple, who documents activist meetings and campaigns across issues.

Art and Media explores how New York’s role as a global art and media capital has shaped activist movements, from nineteenth-century political cartoons to postwar conservative publications like National Review. Posters and paintings by artists including Ben Shahn, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, and Nicole Eisenman show how artists have used their platforms to advance causes. The section also includes a music interactive, letting visitors listen to a selection of activist music from the 20th century onward.  

Direct Action examines how activists have worked outside official systems to make change, from early 20th-century photographs of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York’s public health initiatives to images of the 1964 civil rights school boycott. Objects include a dress worn during a 2025 ICE protest in Lower Manhattan, photographs by Young Lords photographer Hiram Maristany depicting the 1969 “garbage offensive,” and ephemera from mutual aid organizations throughout New York’s history. 

“Activism doesn’t just happen — it’s built, meeting by meeting, flyer by flyer, march by march,” said Elisabeth Sherman, Robert A. and Elizabeth Rohn Jeffe Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Museum of the City of New York. “This exhibition lets visitors see the full machinery behind that work, and honors the generations of New Yorkers, famous and unknown, who built this city’s long history of activism.”

A final section, Your City, Your Move, invites visitors to engage with these tactics directly through three interactive features: a poster-making station lets visitors get creative with symbols and text to express issues that matter to them; a digital interactive shows how to address problems in their own neighborhood; and visitors over 18 can register to vote.

“New York’s density and diversity have always made it fertile ground for people to organize around a cause,” said Sarah Seidman, Puffin Foundation Curator for Social Activism, Museum of the City of New York. “This exhibition traces that history through the objects activists actually used — the flyers, the banners, the megaphones — to tell the stories of activist campaigns through the tools of the people who lived them.” 

Raise Your Voice: New York Activism is made possible by The Puffin Foundation. 

About the Puffin Foundation Center for Social Activism 

The Puffin Foundation Center for Social Activism is a new, permanent home at the Museum of the City of New York dedicated to the history and ongoing legacy of civic engagement and social movements in New York City. Raise Your Voice: New York Activism is its cornerstone exhibition, succeeding the Museum’s long-running exhibition Activist New York, which closed on July 19 to make way for this next chapter. 

About the Museum of the City of New York

The Museum of the City of New York explores the people, places, and ideas that shape New York’s iconic character. We invite New Yorkers and visitors alike to discover their place in the city’s evolving story.

The Museum is located at 1220 Fifth Avenue. Public hours are Monday–Friday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. MCNY is pay-what-you wish for New Yorkers, and free to those under 18. The Museum is free to all visitors on Wednesdays.