Margaret Morton Archive
News
Exhibition with Interference Archive
“Through Padlocks, Behind Barricades: Margaret Morton's Glass House and the Squats of the Lower East Side,” October 17, 2025 to January 5, 2026.
Working with Interference Archive, the Margaret Morton Archive is organizing an exhibition on the squatters’ movement on the Lower East Side, that takes Margaret’s book Glass House (2004) as its point of the departure. The exhibition includes photographs, audio and video, and ephemera from our archive, and from the collections of Interference Archive and New York University. There will be three public programs accompanying the exhibition.
Founded in 2011, Interference Archive in Park Slope, Brooklyn is an all-volunteer non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the relationship between cultural production and social movements.
Bridging Legacy and Learning: The Margaret Morton Collection Arrives at The Cooper Union
The Margaret Morton Archive proudly announces the donation of a significant collection to The Cooper Union, marking a monumental step in preserving and sharing the legacy of the esteemed artist and educator, Margaret Morton.
Comprising primarily teaching materials, administrative documents, and student works, this collection encapsulates Morton’s profound dedication throughout her nearly four-decade-long teaching career at The Cooper Union.
Carnegie Hall: Forgotten Voices
On March 31, 2022, the song cycle, Forgotten Voices, was presented at Carnegie Hall. The concert was organized by violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, founder of Music Kitchen—Food for the Soul, which for 15 years has brought chamber music concerts to homeless shelters. A video produced for the Carnegie Hall concert included photographs by Margaret Morton, who had worked with Hall-Tompkins on the project before COVID.
Major Donations: The Margaret Morton Papers and The Tunnel
Margaret’s archive contains research notes, correspondence, publicity, reviews, audio and video tapes, negatives and more. All these materials for Margaret’s finished and unfinished projects will go to the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
A definitive collection of prints from The Tunnel—published and unpublished images, exhibition prints, and contact sheets—will go to the Museum of the City of New York.
Urban Omnibus: Excavating the Farley
The Architectural League's online publication, Urban Omnibus, featured Margaret Morton's 2016 essay, "Excavating the Farley," as additional writing to explore alongside Jess Myer's recent essay about New York Penn Station, "Eclipsed on the Concourse" (published September 13, 2023).
Whitney Biennial 2022
In his installation, "An Introduction to Nameless Love," Jonathan Berger drew inspiration for one of six pieces from Margaret Morton’s book, The Tunnel: The Underground Homeless of New York City (1995). Working with Margaret and Maria A. Prado, Berger excerpted Maria’s story as told to Margaret in the tunnel, to create a monumental relief of her words incised in metal. Originally shown in March 2020 at Participant, Inc., in New York City, "An Introduction to Nameless Love" was on view in Quiet As Its Kept, the 2022 Whitney Biennial. The exhibition was on view from March 30 to October 16, 2022.
