The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute @ Stanford University

In 2005, with an initial $1 million endowment pledge from Hall of Fame football star Ronnie Lott and his All Stars Helping Kids organization, Dr. Clayborne Carson founded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute to provide a permanent financial base for the King Papers Project and a broad range of other educational activities. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/

The King Institute provides access to thousands of documents, photographs, and publications about the modern African American Freedom Struggle. Use this page to navigate to resources about King’s life and work: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-resources

Above Ground: Art from the Martin Wong Graffiti Collection

Museum of the City of New York | 1220 Fifth Ave at 103rd St., HOURS: Mon-Fri 10-5 | Sat-Sun 10-6 | Free to neighboring zip codes (including 10037). NYS residents pay what you wish. Free to 18 years old and under.

New York’s age of graffiti began on the city streets in the early 1970s. This new movement, often consciously artistic despite its unsanctioned origins, came of age over the next 20 years. Above Ground centers on the many artists who transitioned from illegally writing on subway cars to creating paintings on canvas and exhibiting in galleries and museums. Their works embody an important transitional moment for the movement’s evolution, as it permeated into broader consciousness and significantly influenced global culture.

The exhibition provides a window into a vibrant subculture of young creators and highlights previously unseen treasures from the Museum’s major collection of graffiti-based art. The collection, which was donated by the artist Martin Wong 30 years ago, comprises more than 300 canvases and works on paper. Among the highlights on view in this exhibition are works in aerosol, ink, and other mediums by seminal figures in the street art movement, including Rammellzee, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, and Futura 2000.  Together, they capture the passions and ambitions of artists transitioning from the street to the walls of prominent galleries in New York and around the world.

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