MTA Arts & Design

Christopher Street-Sheridan Square

Lee Brozgol

The Greenwich Village Murals, 1994

Ceramic mosaic on platform walls

Depicting vignettes of community history, The Greenwich Village Murals consist of children's composite drawings inspired and guided by an artist concerned with "identity" and its portrayal. Lee Brozgol first intended to devote each of the four panels to one famous person. "But the village is so rich in amazing characters who shaped America that picking only twelve was impossible," he says. With students from Greenwich Village's P.S. 41, he found space for some forty people arranged in four groupings: Founders, Providers, Bohemians, and Rebels - bending time to group them together. Deborah Lewis, a teacher at P.S. 41, helped Brozgol select nine fifth and sixth graders for the project. The resulting presentation recognizes the many individuals who gave the neighborhood its reputation as a cauldron of artistic and political activity.