THE WHITNEY MUSEUM CELEBRATES EDWARD HOPPER’S BIRTHDAY WITH A ROUND-TRIP BIKE RIDE BETWEEN MEATPACKING AND NYACK ON JULY 20

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to present the second annual Whitney Hopper Ride

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New York, NY, June 21, 2024—The Whitney Museum of American Art is teaming up with the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center and Transportation Alternatives to celebrate the birthday of iconic artist and avid cyclist Edward Hopper with the second annual Whitney Hopper Ride.

This approximately 60-mile round trip bike ride from Manhattan’s Meatpacking District to Hopper’s birthplace of Nyack, New York, and back will take place July 20, 2024, close to what would have been Edward Hopper’s 142nd birthday on July 22.

The ride was held for the first time last year and was a success, with over 100 riders making the trip to celebrate the birthday of the iconic artist, whose career and work have been a touchstone for the Whitney since before the Museum was founded. The Museum is home to over 3,000 artworks by Hopper, more than any other museum in the world.

In addition to the ride, the Whitney and Edward Hopper House Museum will partner with the Meatpacking Business Improvement District to celebrate the iconic artist’s birthday all weekend. The Whitney will offer special all-ages art projects and activities throughout the day, and as always, the Whitney has several Hopper works—including Early Sunday Morning (1930) and other paintings and sketches—on view on the Museum’s 7th Floor as part of the collection display (advanced tickets recommended; kids and teens are always free, and other discounted opportunities here).

The Meatpacking BID will offer large-scale installations steps from the Whitney at Gansevoort Plaza that allow visitors to “step into” Hopper paintings for photos (before or after seeing the actual works on view at the Whitney).

The Edward Hopper House Museum will also offer art activities all weekend in its “Hop into Art” Lab along with artmaking projects with the new exhibition, Matinee: Dike Blair. The weekend will close with “Edward Hopper Recomposed,” a Sunday concert (5-7 pm) by Night Hawk, a Hopper inspired indie band. New Yorkers can also visit the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center Wednesday through Sunday for tours, exhibitions, and programs.

Transportation Alternatives is the 2024 Hopper Ride cycling partner. Cyclists will start their journey early Saturday morning outside the Whitney Museum (99 Gansevoort Street, Manhattan) for registration between 7–8:30 am before heading north to the Edward Hopper House (82 North Broadway, Nyack). The Edward Hopper House will offer snacks, Hopper birthday activities, and tours of the artist’s home, including a look at his 1897 bicycle and the exhibition Matinee: Dike Blair, curated by Helen Molesworth and prompted by Hopper’s fascination with the cinematic. At the end of the visit, riders will head back to the Whitney, which is located near the neighborhood where Hopper lived and worked for much of his life.

Experienced cyclists are encouraged to sign up for the ride at whitney.org.

There is a registration fee. Space is extremely limited. 

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“We are thrilled to celebrate Edward Hopper’s birthday with a bike ride between the places he called home,” says Kim Conaty, the Whitney’s Steven and Ann Ames Chief Curator. “The iconic artist, whose works are a pillar of the Whitney’s collection, was an avid cyclist in his youth and an enthusiastic spectator of bike racing in New York City, always paying close attention to the scenes around him as he rode through village roads and later explored the life and landscape of the city. For the second year, the Whitney Hopper Ride will offer a window into the artist’s unique and personal vision of the world, one formed in the very places we will pass through, and we hope New Yorkers will join us for the ride and for our birthday celebration at the Museum and in our community.”

“This Whitney Hopper Ride is a fun and energetic way to bring the museum and cycling communities together to celebrate Edward Hopper on his 142nd birthday,” said Edward Hopper House Museum executive director Kathleen Motes Bennewitz. “In Hopper’s youth, the aspiring artist pedaled down streets of Nyack and along country roads looking for subjects to sketch, and enjoyed the sport outright with friends and fellow friends ‘wheelwomen’ and ‘wheelmen.’ With the support of the Whitney Museum, Transportation Alternatives, and the Meatpacking District, this second annual ride continues to offer metro area cyclists a day to discover connections between Hopper’s experiences in Nyack and New York City, and in between.”

“We’re looking forward to celebrating Edward Hopper’s 142nd birthday with a 60-mile ride between Manhattan and Nyack, giving more than 100 riders a glimpse into the iconic artist’s life,” said Megan Eiss, Interim Co-Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. “Much like Hopper, we know that going by bike is a fun, relaxing, and enjoyable way to get around and we’re thrilled to partner with the Whitney Museum and the Edward Hopper House Museum to make this ride a success.”

THE WHITNEY

The Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1930 by the artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), houses the foremost collection of American art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mrs. Whitney, an early and ardent supporter of modern American art, nurtured groundbreaking artists when audiences were still largely preoccupied with the Old Masters. From her vision arose the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has been championing the most innovative art of the United States for ninety years. The core of the Whitney’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit American art of our time and serve a wide variety of audiences in celebration of the complexity and diversity of art and culture in the United States. Through this mission and a steadfast commitment to artists, the Whitney has long been a powerful force in support of modern and contemporary art and continues to help define what is innovative and influential in American art today.

Whitney Museum Land Acknowledgment
The Whitney is located in Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape. The name Manhattan comes from their word Mannahatta, meaning “island of many hills.” The Museum’s current site is close to land that was a Lenape fishing and planting site called Sapponckanikan (“tobacco field”). The Whitney acknowledges the displacement of this region’s original inhabitants and the Lenape diaspora that exists today.

As a museum of American art in a city with vital and diverse communities of Indigenous people, the Whitney recognizes the historical exclusion of Indigenous artists from its collection and program. The Museum is committed to addressing these erasures and honoring the perspectives of Indigenous artists and communities as we work for a more equitable future. To read more about the Museum’s Land Acknowledgment, visit the Museum’s website.

THE EDWARD HOPPER HOUSE MUSEUM & STUDY CENTER

82 North Broadway, Nyack, NY 10960

845.358.0774

info@hopperhouse.org,edwardhopperhouse.org, @edwardhopperhouse

THE EDWARD HOPPER HOUSE MUSEUM & STUDY CENTER

TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES

TA works to reclaim New York City from cars, so we can transform our streets into safe, sustainable,

and equitable places to walk, bike, take transit, gather, and thrive.

info@transalt.org, https://www.facebook.com/TransportationAlternatives/
https://www.instagram.com/transportationalternatives, / https://x.com/TransAlt

Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street New York, NY 10014
whitney.org

Image credits:

Edward Hopper, Cyclist, 1895-99. Graphite pencil on paper, 5 × 8 in. (12.7 × 20.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest 70.1563.64. © 2023 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York