Artist Suzanne Dirks Delves into the Historic Significance of NYC's Public Clocks in HSNY Lecture

Scattered across cities, public clocks serve as communal timekeepers - on street corners, high towers, and above doorways, yet often missed by busy city folk. Suzanne Dirks, a NYC-based artist and educator, poses the question: In an era of personal, digitized time, do public clocks still hold significance? Planned for January 2026, her lecture at HSNY delves into public timekeeping’s history, community-led efforts to preserve clocks, and the clusters of these time-telling landmarks across diverse urban neighborhoods.

Suzanne’s work revolves around time, memory, and the urban landscape. A West Village native, she spearheads @NewYorkCityClocks: a project dedicated to documenting NYC’s public clocks. Her interdisciplinary approach, pulling from historical research, photography, and first-hand experiences, unpacks the impact of public timekeeping on a shared city life.

In a separate event, HSNY is hitting the road, carrying its award-winning classes to Atlanta in January 2026, followed by Washington, D.C. in March the same year. These weekend classes see students working on a mechanical watch movement, unravelling the intricacies of winding and setting mechanisms, gear trains, and escapements. Enrolment for these classes is presently open.