Lawrence Weiner in front of the Whitney Museum

The Whitney’s social distancing markers are more artful than most…or so it appears in front of the museum where conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner’s manhole cover aligns with the line to get in the museum.  Commissioned in 2000 by the Public Art Fund, the cover is one of many that were installed around Union Square, Washington Square Park and other downtown locations through early 2011.  Reading ‘In direct line with another and the next,’ the text relates to the city grid and its residents moving though urban spaces together, a theme never more relevant than now.