Nina Chanel Abney’s monumental work of art for the façade of David Geffen Hall pays homage to San Juan Hill. In the 1940s and '50s, this diverse, working-class neighborhood—home to some of the largest Black and Puerto Rican populations in New York City in the first half of the twentieth century—was forcibly displaced to make way for redevelopment, including what would become Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Abney’s constellation of figures, words, shapes, and symbols reflects the thriving community that lived here.

I have had the pleasure of collaborating with contemporary artist Nina Chanel Abney on her special public projects. Together, we were able to take her small-scale drawings and digital files and convert them into vector files for large applications such as painted or printed murals throughout the States. Our biggest project to date was working on The Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, where Abney's monumental work of art for the facade of David Geffen Hall pays homage to San Juan Hill. Throughout the project, I worked closely with the artist and her team to ensure that the artworks were scaled correctly for this massive installation that covered all of the windows with her symbols and icons.