The Municipal Art Society of New York

• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal |
• MASterworks Awards |
• Annual Awards |
• Brendan Gill Prize |
• Jane Jacobs Medal |
• Yolanda Garcia Community Planner Award

John Morse, the artist who delighted New Yorkers with his quirky pedestrian safety signs  – or Curbside Haiku, as they were dubbed by Morse and the New York City Department of Transportation, which commissioned them – is the recipient of the 24th Brendan Gill Prize.

Said MAS President Vin Cipolla:  “John’s charmingly effective signs have captured the imagination of all New Yorkers, whether they travel on two feet or via another means of transportation. In devising such a witty and whimsical way to capture the attention of even the busiest New Yorkers, he may just have accomplished the impossible.”

What became Curbside Haiku was commissioned by the New York City Department of Transportation and installed through its Urban Art Program. Each of John Morse’s 12 eye-catching, colorful designs and accompanying haiku delivers a safety message focusing on a particular transportation mode. In all, 216 signs have been installed at high-crash locations throughout the city such as those near cultural institutions and schools. The images and verse draw attention to the shared responsibility of pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers to keep New York streets safe.

John Morse describes his art as always seeking the unique within the common and the ethereal from the mundane. From creating collage out of litter to infusing prosaic objects with art and poetry, his explorations seek to reveal the extraordinary in the everyday.  Curbside Haiku follows in this tradition by remaking familiar traffic signs into tools that inform, educate and cause the viewer to suddenly smile and think, “Safety First!”

The Brendan Gill Prize is an annual cash prize given to the creator of a work of art made during the previous year that captures the energy and spirit of New York City, whether that work is a book, play, art installation, architectural or landscape design, choreographed performance or other art form. The prize is named for longtime New Yorker theater and architecture critic, champion preservationist and former MAS President Brendan Gill.  A man of extraordinary intelligence and wit, Gill shared his remarkable talents with New York City and with MAS until his death in 1998.

The prize was established in his honor in 1987 by friend and fellow MAS board member Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis along with board members Helen Tucker and Margot Wellington.  Ms. Tucker continues to serve on the jury along with Randall Bourscheidt, Kinshasha Conwill, Gail Gregg, Paul Gunther, Tom Finkelpearl, John Haworth and Suketu Mehta.