An American Weekend

If you were alive in the 1980s, you’ve probably seen the art of Keith Haring. His graffiti-inspired images were everywhere: canvases and T-shirts, walls and subway stations.

Now one of Haring’s lesser-known murals in New York is threatened. It’s in the stairwell of a former convent called Grace House, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan — a pretty unlikely place, even for Haring. But here are Haring’s familiar, cartoonish figures — the radiant baby, the barking dog — dancing up and down three flights of stairs.

“Most of them are very simple, very joyous, very happy,” says Robert Savina, who’s lived here for two years. “It’s sort of a great meditation when you’re walking down the steps or up the steps. And, depending on the time of day with the light changing, you know the mural changes. You see different things each time you pass it.”

Today Haring’s paintings are worth millions of dollars, but this mural was largely forgotten. Grace House is still owned by Church of the Ascension, around the corner. But the church, according to tenant Robert Savina, wants to sell it.

In An NYC Stairwell, One Of Keith Haring’s Murals May Be In Peril

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