Breaking In commemorated Creative Time’s first permanent home at 48 Old Slip, south of Wall Street near the East River. Creative Time moved to the space after eight years of assisting visual and performing artists in the realization of new works for public exhibition. The site functioned officially as the First Precinct House until 1975, and in 1977 it was declared a landmark.

Breaking In projects included Lucio Pozzi’s Cell Scapes, for which murals treating themes of freedom and depicting women were installed in three jail cells. The doors of the cells were “locked” with enormous foam-rubber keys, while Connie Beckley’s Trio for Five Keys played in the background.

Photograph by Lisa Kahane

Multiple Artists

Breaking In

Manhattan

1980