Sarah Morris Site-Specific Wall Painiting Unveiled By City Center

New York City Center has unveiled a site-specific wall painting by Sarah Morris entitled Waltz of the Snowflakes [Nutcracker]. Commissioned by New York City Center, the work can be viewed in the Grand Tier lobby—free for audiences to experience when they attend a performance.

The British-American artist Sarah Morris is acclaimed for her large-scale diagrammatic paintings and films, which explore the relationship between architecture, urban systems, and the global web of power structures that shape our contemporary reality.

Waltz of the Snowflakes [Nutcracker] responds to one of New York City's most distinctive cultural landmarks—the historic New York City Center. Originally built in 1923 as the Shriners’ Mecca Temple, City Center was transformed in 1943 by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia into “the people’s theater,” a place where some of the world’s greatest artists first made their marks, all for an affordable ticket price.

Among these artists was George Balanchine, who cofounded the iconic New York City Ballet at City Center in 1948. Reflecting New York City’s remarkable dedication to the arts and community, Morris found inspiration in City Center’s specific history in relation to Balanchine, widely regarded as the “father of American ballet.”

On February 2, 1954, his now-renowned staging of The Nutcracker first premiered at City Center. The show was so beloved that it became a holiday tradition synonymous with New York City itself.

In Waltz of the Snowflakes [Nutcracker], Morris deploys repeated geometric forms, shifting intervals of color, and bold visual rhythms, generating a deliberate tempo that evokes architecture, music, and choreography simultaneously.

Morris counter-positions City Center’s grand legacy with her own notational composition and vocabulary, interpreting Act I of Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. The scene, known for its unique visualization and representation of snow, becomes a moment of inflection for Morris.

Waltz of the Snowflakes [Nutcracker] evokes Balanchine’s unique history at City Center and the City of New York, inviting one to consider the relationship between music, architecture, dance, and art. Like New York City itself, Morris’s wall painting is built from intersecting layers, each one shaping how we see, move through, and experience the city.