CUlTUre & The ArTs MUseUMs •  ATTrACTIONs • perfOrMANCes For hundreds of years, Downtown was where merchant princes made their fortunes, but not where they sought absolution by bankrolling the arts. Lower Manhattan and high culture simply did not mix—perhaps because the Robber Barons believed that their robbing and their barroning should take place as far away from each other as possible. That began to change in the early 1970s, when street fairs focused on the arts first appeared on local boulevards. The transformation gathered steam in the decades that followed, as local institutions (such as Trinity Church) focused on offering musical performances, and new museums began to take root. The evolution became a revolution when a modern-day Medici, Ron Perlman, signed as the patron of the Performing Arts Center now being built at the World Trade Center. So it’s official: the southern tip of Manhattan is now a destination for those seeking to be enlightened, as well as to be enriched. POINTS OF INTEREST 9/11 Memorial Museum 180 Greenwich street 212-312-8800  911memorial.org 9/11 Memorial Museum Store 180 Greenwich street 911memorial.org 9/11 Tribute Museum 92 Greenwich street 212-422-3520  911tributemuseum.org African Burial Ground National Monument 290 Broadway 212-637-2019 nps.gov/afbg Castle Clinton National Monument Battery park 212-344-7220 nps.gov/cacl City Hall Public Programs & Tours 212-788-3071 nyc.gov/designcommission Federal Hall National Monument 26 Wall street 212-825-6990 nps.gov/feha Governors Island ferry location: 10 south street slip 7 212-825-3045 govisland.com Irish Hunger Memorial vesey st/ North end Ave Maritime Craft Center 207 Water street 646-628-2707 southstreetseaportmuseum.org /visit/water-street/ Poets House 10 river Terrace 212-431-7920 poetshouse.org 22 CULTURE