Hidden in Plain Sight

The Preservation League’s Seven to Save program has been drawing statewide attention to New York’s most important and at-risk historic places since 1999. Hidden in Plain Sight began in 2017 as a way to further that mission.

The exhibition contains beautiful black and white photos of this year’s Seven to Save designees. It uses art as yet another way to rally advocates to the sites that tell unique stories of New York's communities.

Through Seven to Save, the League has worked with local stakeholders to avert demolition, develop plans for reuse, secure landmark designation, and foster greater public awareness of the value of New York’s unique and irreplaceable historic resources. Threats to dozens of at-risk buildings, landscapes, downtowns, and neighborhoods have been reduced, and in many cases, eliminated by the Seven to Save designation and subsequent actions.

2018-2019 Traveling Exhibition

Exhibition gallery hours and opening receptions are free and open to the public except where noted.

• Albany| Preservation League HQ
  44 Central Ave | November 9, 2018-April 12, 2019
  Opening Reception: Friday, November 9, 5:00-7:00 p.m.

• Rochester | Sibley Square
  260 East Main Street | April 26-June TBD
  Opening Reception*: April 26, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
  *Hidden in Plain Sight at Sibley Square is presented in partnership with the Statewide Preservation Conference. The opening reception is open to conference attendees only.

• ​North Tonawanda | Carnegie Art Center
  240 Goundry Street | June 26-July 23
  Opening Reception: July 11, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
  Thanks to our local partners: Preservation Buffalo Niagara

• Fonda | Montgomery County Department of History & Archives
  9 Park Street | July 29-September 23
  Opening Reception: August 2, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
  Thanks to our local partners: Montgomery County, Heritage + Genealogical Society of Montgomery County, and Mohawk Valley Collective

• Binghamton | Bundy Museum of History & Art Photography Gallery
  32 Cedar Street | October 4-November 30
  Opening Reception: October 4, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
  Thanks to our local partners: The City of Binghamton, Binghamton Economic Development, and Preservation Association of the Southern Tier

• Jamestown | St. Luke's Episcopal Church
  410 N Main Street | November 14-TBD
  Opening Reception: November 14, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
  The opening reception will follow a free Road Map to Preservation presentation at 6:00 p.m. led by League Manager of Technical & Grant Programs Frances Stern and Director of Preservation Services at Preservation Buffalo Niagara Christiana Limniatis.
  Thanks to our local partners: St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Fenton History Center, Preservation Buffalo Niagara, and the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation

The 2018-19 traveling exhibition of Hidden in Plain Sight was made possible thanks to our generous sponsors:

About the Artist

Bruce Harvey holds a Ph.D. in History from Vanderbilt University. He produces all of his photographs in accordance with the standards of the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historian American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER). HABS was a New Deal program from the 1930s that employed out-of-work architects and historians in the documentation of major historical landmarks, while HAER was an addition in the late 1960s that drew from a growing interest in America’s industrial history.

“I am an experienced journeyman historian, very familiar with the range of sources that allow me to tell the stories of the vast range of places where I have worked,” said Harvey. “From cities and towns in southeastern Alabama to the northernmost reaches of Maine, to military bases for nearly all of the branches, and hydroelectric facilities throughout the nation, I love to tell the stories of places, to recapture and represent the continuities from past to present.”

Phoebe Powell Bender; Matthew Bender; Reverend Dr. Thomas F. Pike; Michel & Caroline Rob Zaleski