City Lore Gallery
56 E. First Street New York, NY 10003
Gallery hours: Saturdays and Sundays, 12:00 – 6:00 pm and by appointment
OPENING RECEPTION
Join us for the opening reception of In Great Accord.
RSVP required.
Tuesday, June 23
6pm
REBEL SQUEEZEBOX
Play, listen, and learn — a hands-on accordion workshop with Mary Knapp.
Ages 4-12 recommended, all welcome!
RSVP required.
Saturday, June 27
3-5 pm
DUELING ACCORDIONS
An experimental night of the accordion.
Eight artists in one room.
Suggested donation, RSVP encouraged.
RSVP
Tuesday, June 30
7pm
"In Great Accord: The Accordion and the Immigrant City" explores the accordion through the lens of immigrant traditions in New York City, tracing how communities from around the world made the instrument their own. On view at City Lore Gallery from June 20 through July 5, the exhibition celebrates the music, makers, and cultural traditions that have shaped the city's diverse identity.
From beer halls in the Lower East Side to cumbia clubs in Queens, the accordion has traveled the boroughs in the hands of immigrants, becoming a vessel for memory, identity, and belonging in New York City's ever-changing neighborhoods. Carried across oceans and borders by waves of newcomers — German, Italian, Eastern European, Mexican, to name a few — the instrument took root in the city's streets, dance halls, and living rooms, absorbing the sounds and stories of each community that embraced it.
In Great Accord: The Accordion and the Immigrant City traces this rich and layered history through archival photographs, recordings, and artifacts that illuminate the accordion's journey through New York's cultural landscape. Contemporary interviews with musicians and community members bring the story into the present, offering a testament to the instrument's enduring place in the life of the city, and the people who have claimed this unlikely instrument as their own, transforming it into a living archive of the immigrant experience.
Presented by the Association for Cultural Equity in partnership with EnuBuilds and City Lore. This program is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
City Lore Gallery is supported by the André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, La Vida Feliz Foundation, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and the Scherman Foundation, as well as public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.