Riverdale photographer Billy Cleary has spent years recording Van Cortlandt Park’s paths, fields, ponds, wildlife, historic entrances, and changing seasons. A free exhibition of that work opens Saturday inside Van Cortlandt House Museum, with Cleary there to meet visitors and light refreshments included.
Opening reception
- When: Saturday, Oct. 3, 3–5 p.m.
- Where: Van Cortlandt House Museum, Broadway at West 246th Street, Bronx
- Cost: Free; RSVP through the Eventbrite link on the NYC Parks listing
- Age: 21 and over; IDs will be checked
- Accessibility: The historic house requires climbing one set of stairs; the reception is on the first floor
If you cannot make the opening
- Van Cortlandt Park in Pictures remains on view through Sunday, Nov. 8
- The photographs cover the park throughout the year rather than a single season
- Cleary is a Riverdale resident of more than 30 years, not a visiting artist parachuting in for the landscape
Cleary began sharing more of his park photography during the pandemic, encouraged by messages from people confined at home who followed the images. That origin gives the show a useful scale: one neighbor’s sustained attention to a public place, presented inside the park’s own historic house.
The reception is the social version, but the month-long run is the better practical detail. You can pair a visit with an actual walk through the landscapes in the photographs rather than treating the opening as the only chance to see them.