Faith Ringgold Mural at Rikers Island to Move to Brooklyn Museum

The artist requested that her painting, dedicated to incarcerated women in the jail complex, head to the museum because of safety concerns. City officials agreed.

In 2019, the painter Faith Ringgold traveled to Rikers Island so that she could see how her first public art commission, a 1972 mural called “For the Women’s House,” was faring. Not so good, she decided, and the artist, who is 91, continued to quietly wage her campaign to see her work, which hung in a forlorn hallway behind plexiglass where few could see it, relocated to the Brooklyn Museum.

On Tuesday, city officials granted her request. The Public Design Commission agreed to a long-term loan of the vibrant work from the Department of Corrections to the museum. It followed a request by Mayor Bill de Blasio, in the final days of his administration, that the mural be lent to the cultural institution.

“I feel that there has been a careful effort to ensure that this is being placed and loaned to an institution that already acknowledges the great work of this artist,” said Signe Nielsen, president of the design commission. “We are all going to breathe better knowing this piece is in an accessible location.”