Mierle Laderman Ukeles is known for shaking the hand of every employee in the Department of Sanitation. Her latest work may be less tactile, but it is no less heartfelt.
Murals thanking frontline health care workers have popped up in neighborhoods all over New York during the pandemic. A new art piece, unveiled on Tuesday across the city, pays homage to other essential workers: the men and women who run the transit system and pick up garbage day in and day out.
And it comes from an artist, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, who for decades has honored those who toil anonymously in the service of the city.
Ms. Ukeles, 80, the artist-in-residence at the New York Department of Sanitation, is perhaps best known for a 1979-80 performance piece for which she shook hands with all 8,500 employees of the agency, saying to each one, “Thank you for keeping New York City alive!”
Her new work, entitled “For ⟶ forever…,” reprises that exact message, via a 15-second animation of a note being handwritten. The message — “Dear Service Worker, ‘Thank you for keeping NYC alive!’ For ⟶ forever” — will be played on a loop on a digital billboard in Times Square and on 2,000 message boards in the subways.
The museum collaborated on the project with Times Square Arts and the arts and design program at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Ms. Ukeles’s piece comes at a time when the pandemic has plunged the city into a fiscal crisis not seen since the 1970s, when the artist first took her unsalaried position with the sanitation department. Now, like then, garbage is piling up, as the budgets of city agencies are slashed.
But Ms. Ukeles encodes hope in her new work. The animation sequence starts with a flash of orange-red, which conveys emergency, and ends with the neon green of the safety vests worn by sanitation workers. “It swells from one shade to another,” she said, “and we feel optimistic.”
Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s Retrospective
Holland Cotter’s review, from 2016.
BY NOW IT’S likely your family has started practicing some kind of social distancing, voluntarily or not. School plays have been canceled, restaurants are far less crowded, and places of worship have gone digital. I’m even writing this from my couch as my office in Washington, D.C., has been temporarily shuttered for a few weeks.
Then on Thursday, Ohio, Maryland, and Michigan became the first states in the country to mandate a statewide shutdown for all schools. And though kids might be thinking of this as a three-week-long snow day with endless playdates, parents are wondering whether that’s such a good idea.
Experts are too, and there’s a lot of puzzlement on how much social distancing anyone should be practicing. But one thing they urge is caution and common sense.
And just make sure to keep their hands washed and fingers out of noses!
What you need to know
Having ‘The Conversation’: If you haven’t already, here are a few basic techniques on how to talk about COVID-19 with your kids. In short, be calm, meet kids where they are, and help them feel like they’re in control, writes Ruth A. Musgrave for Nat Geo. (This explainer for kids will help give the the basic facts.) Don’t sugarcoat it: Tell them they may get sick, and feel poorly for a while. They won’t be alone. They should know it likely will be a long haul, though perhaps you don’t dwell on these details.
How one teacher told her students: “Misinformation can lead to stress, and stress can make it harder for children to learn,” writes Angela Sheffield, an Indiana public school teacher for the past 27 years. Sheffield developed a chart for students about what we know, told them about the importance of challenging stereotypes and refraining from derogatory comments and conclusions. She was transparent and honest about her fears—that the school might close if the outbreak hit their community. After every statement, she reassured students that, for now, they were going to carry on as usual, and she repeated: Education is the key.
No, your dog won’t give you coronavirus: It’s inevitable, staying at home, that your family will have more contact with pets. Don’t worry, experts say the virus cannot be transmitted from your pet to you. However, the World Health Organization advises you to wash your hands with soap and water after contact. “It’s the pet owners, rather than pets, that have a higher risk of spreading the virus.” writes Youyou Zhou for Quartz.
Rachel Buchholz is editor in chief and vice president of National Geographic Kids Magazines, Digital, and Family.
Nat Geo is asking parents what they’re doing to keep their stay-at-home children active and educated. Here's what they're telling us.
Raise your hand if your kids are stuck at home while you struggle to fill their time. Who better to come up with creative solutions than parents? Check out these ideas from the experts themselves on how to keep children engaged during this forced togetherness time. And keep checking back for new ideas. Share your ideas on Twitter.