By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter / Producer
MIDTOWN — Ready, set, sleuth!
The city has begun distributing thousands of keys that will grant residents and visitors access to everything from a closet door in the master bedroom of Gracie Mansion to a box of free admission passes at the Met in a massive month-long scavenger hunt across the city.
Part art, part game, artist Paul Ramírez Jonas’s “Key to the City” project is premised on the honorary keys that the mayor usually bestows upon heroes and visiting dignitaries.
But instead of symbolic pieces of metal that don’t open anything, these free keys unlock back doors, steel gates, padlocks and secret compartments at more than 20 sites across the city. Some are hidden in landmarks. Others can be found in schools, community gardens, gyms and graveyards. But finding them is part of the fun.
“For the month of June, I will not be the only one with the authority to give a key to the city,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a press conference announcing the project Thursday in Times Square. “This opens up a whole new experience to residents and visitors alike.”
Bloomberg made his comments from in front of a kiosk on Broadway between 43rd and 44th Streets, where the keys and maps outlining the locks' locations will be distributed every day from now through June 27.
Keys are then supposed to be exchanged by recipients at “bestowal ceremonies” taking place on a mock village lawn behind the booth.
“We’re turning everyday experiences into something very extraordinary,” said Anne Pasternak, president and artistic director of Creative Time, the group behind the project.
In Manhattan, key holders will be granted the power to turn a streetlight in Bryant Park off and on. Successful sleuths will be able to unlock a door on the pedestrian walkway of the George Washington Bridge and open the closet door in the master bedroom of Gracie Mansion.
Other sites with locks to find include the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Trinity Church, the Whitney Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where keys unlock a box filled with free admission buttons.
In the outer boroughs, the offerings range from a look inside a Quality Service Survey drop box at the Bronx County Courthouse to an extra serving of ice cream at Eddieʼs Sweet Shop in Queens.
At least 25,000 keys are expected to be distributed with the help of members of NYC Civic Corps, the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs Unit and GrowNYC.
Bloomberg said he hopes the hunt will bring tourists and business to places people might not normally think to visit.
Following his statements, Bloomberg and Jonas were the first to exchange keys, which were donated by Medeco along with the locks.
“By the power granted to me by you, I hereby award you this key,” Jonas told the mayor, smiling.
The first door the mayor plans to unlock? The closet in the master bedroom of Gracie Mansion, which rumor says is haunted by ghosts.
Queens resident Angelo Messina, 65, was one of the first in line to pick up his key after the mayor.
Like Bloomberg, he said he wants to visit the Mansion first, too.
Zillian Cheuk, 30, who is visiting from Minneapolis, Minn., said she loved the idea of the keys as soon as she heard it.
“I think it’s really cool,” she said. “It’s a great way to engage people and get people to see sites they wouldn’t usually go see.”
Art curator Adam Kleinman, 32, who lives in Brooklyn, received his key from stranger Liv Tait, 23, from Westport, Conn.
“I think it’s fantastic,” he said. “It gets people out and around this city.”
