New York City rock icons The Velvet Underground will be the subject of a new multimedia exhibition, “The Velvet Underground Experience,” set to open in downtown Manhattan from October 10th through December 30th. The exhibit will be housed at 718 Broadway in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood, not far from where Lou Reed and company recorded much of their breakthrough album, 1967’s The Velvet Underground & Nico.
According to The New York Times, the exhibition will feature photographs, portraits, films, videos, live concerts, musical workshops, and more. As the article notes,
In 1965, the Velvet Underground gathered in a cramped loft on Ludlow Street with no bathroom, heat or electricity to begin rehearsing songs that would become the core of their debut album, “The Velvet Underground & Nico.” Nine blocks north and 53 years later, a much bigger space — covering two stories and 12,000 square feet — will house a multimedia exhibition dedicated to the band’s legacy.
“The Velvet Underground Experience” is coming to New York from its current home at the Philharmonie de Paris, where it opened two years ago. According to “The Velvet Underground Experience” organizers, since its opening, the Paris edition of the exhibit has brought in more than 65,000 visitors.
The exhibition was slated to make its New York debut in Chelsea this past April, but plans fell through. Christian Fevret, the exhibition’s main curator, used the postponed launch to push for a space that was geographically closer to the band’s true roots in the early ’60s downtown Manhattan rock scene.
“I’m very proud to be able to able to show New Yorkers that the band has such a big influence everywhere else: not only in America, but in Europe, in Japan, in South America,” Mr. Fevret told the New York Times. “It’s giving back to New York what New York gave us.”
Tickets for the New York edition of “The Velvet Underground Experience” go on sale this Friday, August 17th. For more information about “The Velvet Underground Experience,” head here.
[H/T Rolling Stone]