The Whitney Museum of American Art is teaming up with the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center, OutCycling, and the Meatpacking Business Improvement District to celebrate iconic artist Edward Hopper’s birthday with the first-ever Whitney Hopper Ride and activities designed for visitors of all ages.
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 22, 2023, on what would have been Edward Hopper’s 141st birthday.
Throughout the day, the Whitney will also be celebrating Edward Hopper at the Museum with several works on view and free art-making activities inspired by Hopper for kids from 11 am–3 pm. Kids (18 years and under) are always free at the Whitney.
Cyclists will start their journey early Saturday morning outside the Whitney Museum (99 Gansevoort Street, Manhattan) for registration between 7–8:30 am with light refreshments 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 Ellsworth Kelly: States of The River. 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.
Each participant will receive a food voucher, as well as an exclusive Whitney Hopper Ride water bottle and two tickets to return to visit both Edward Hopper House and the Whitney.
Experienced cyclists are encouraged to sign up for the ride at outcycling.org. There is a registration fee. Space is extremely limited.
Edward Hopper’s 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. The Whitney also just closed its landmark exhibition Edward Hopper’s New York, which generated record crowds from October 2022 until March 2023, especially amongst New Yorkers. As part of that exhibition, the Whitney created a map of New York City spots that Hopper painted.
In addition to the ride, New Yorkers can celebrate Edward Hopper any time by visiting the Whitney, which currently has Hopper’s work Early Sunday Morning (1930) and several 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). They can also visit Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center Thursday through Sunday for tours, exhibitions, and programs.
“It will be great fun to mark Edward Hopper’s birthday with a ride between the places he called home,” says Kim Conaty, the Whitney’s Steven and Ann Ames Curator of Drawings and Prints and curator of Edward Hopper’s New York, who plans to participate in the ride. “The iconic artist was also 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. 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.”
