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Richmond Barthé’s 80-foot “Exodus and Dance” frieze has been displayed at the NYCHA campus for 84 years, where it’s affectionately referred to as “The Wall.”
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At the Kingsborough Houses in Crown Heights last week, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) unveiled a restoration of the over 80-foot “Exodus and Dance” frieze by Richmond Barthé, funded in part by the New York City Council and the Mellon Foundation.
“Your efforts, as all of your efforts, are driven with a drive and a passion for arts and resident engagement, and the end result is a place for this community to congregate and enjoy for decades to come,” said Lisa Bova-Hiatt, CEO of NYCHA.
The restoration was led by NYCHA and the Public Housing Community Fund, created in 2016 to support residents through programs within NYCHA’s 335 developments. In January 2024, the fund was awarded $2 million from the Mellon Foundation to help restore “Exodus and Dance” and fund future art programming at the Kingsborough Houses.
The bas-relief frieze depicts scenes of biblical imagery and African dance, and was originally completed in 1939. Barthé, hired to create the piece under the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, initially intended it for a theater at the Harlem River Houses, according to the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. But it was eventually displayed at the Kingsborough Houses, starting in 1941.
In its 84 years there, the piece has been affectionately referred to as “The Wall.” Evergreene Architectural Arts and Jablonski Building Conservation completed the restoration at a conservation studio in the Bronx, and the piece now sits on a new brick wall.
“We are at a time in our country where they are taking monuments to our culture down, where they are trying to erase our cultural history, telling us that we do not matter,” said New York State Sen. Zellnor Myrie. “So today is so important because we stand united in saying this community matters. Yeah, our cultural history matters. Who we are matters.”
In an effort to deter crime, the floor in front of the frieze has built-in light strips to illuminate the area, which Myrie described as “a public safety tool.”
“The only difference between gunfire on one block and peace in another is people and culture, and having a culture of peace. Art does that. It makes us think beyond ourselves. It inspires us to do so many good and positive things,” said Assemblymember Stephanie Zimmerman. “This is an amphitheater of love and joy. We should be sitting here every single day, playing music, talking about our history, talking about our dreams.”
During the unveiling ceremony, speakers acknowledged Larry Weekes, former president of the Fulton Art Fair and Kingsborough artist-in-residence, as a main driving force in the restoration project. Weekes passed away earlier this summer.
“At the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, I looked at the frieze and thought, this is Black lives. We needed to do something to restore and revitalize it,” he’s quoted as having said, according to a program for the event.
Weekes was involved in art programs at the Older Adult Center at the Kingsborough Houses, which Eden White, a resident of the Kingsborough Extension senior housing, says she participated in. She says she’ll be visiting the frieze more often.
“It looks 100 percent better now,” White said. “I’m going to tell my friends to come and my grandkids. Any time they come by to see me, I’ll tell them come down here to see what it looks like.”
The $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation will also be used for future programming at the NYCHA campus. This includes a mural on the back of the frieze in partnership with the Fulton Art Fair, and a series of “Storywalks”—art installations that highlight shared histories and memories, in partnership with Creative Urban Alchemy.
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