If exhibition attendance were the sole measure of curatorial clout, Lauren Ross, 39, would rank almost as high as the chief curator of MoMA in the New York art world—and she doesn't even work for a museum.
Her curatorial domain is the High Line, the elevated park that courses through New York's meatpacking district from Chelsea to the West Village. Since section one (Gansevoort Street to 20th Street) opened in June 2009, it has attracted around two million visitors; if that pace continues, it could near MoMA's 2008-09 total of 2.8 million. Although many visit for the greenery and the view, the park's contemporary art installations are increasingly stealing the limelight.
Ross commissions artist projects of varying scales for this unusual patch of the city. These include her work with fellow New York non-profit Creative Time to commission the park's large-scale projects—the first of which was Spencer Finch's glass-work The River That Flows Both Ways, a piece that has occupied a former loading dock near Chelsea Market since last June. The second, a sound work by Stephen Vitiello, opens this June in a tunnel-like passage at 14th Street, and will feature 59 bell tones recorded throughout the city and state, from church and bicycle bells to the bell that opens trading on the New York stock exchange.
