Those New York City public-art wizards at Creative Time have done it again. Ever since the early 1970s, this excellent art collective has been commissioning, curating and creating innovative, interactive projects that use our beautiful city not only as an ideal backdrop, but also as an integral part of the pieces. Creative Time's newest and perhaps most ambitious project to date, Paul Ramirez Jonas's Key to the City, is going on right now, in Times Square and at various locations throughout the five boroughs, and we love pretty much everything about it. 

The core concept here is that everyone–even, and especially, you!–is worthy of New York City's highest honor, a Key to the City, a symbolic award usually reserved for action heroes and visiting dignitaries. In this piece, Jonas is saying all New Yorkers are heroes of the everyday sort–raising children, being of service to others, getting through life with kindness and love–and all visitors to the fair city qualify as dignitaries. Best of all, this key actually works, and can be used to open up secret doors and garden gates and mysterious boxes in locations throughout the city! 

 

To bestow a Key to the City upon a friend or loved one–and to get one bestowed upon you–simply show up at the special ceremonial Commons in the heart of Times Square. There are lots of young Creative Time volunteers to steer you through the process, but the first thing you need to do is get on line. They've been handing out some 2,000 keys a day so far, and you should plan on at least a 30-minute wait to grant and receive yours. While you wait a volunteer will hand you a booklet, in which you declare why you think your partner deserves a Key. It can be any reason–she's a great mother, he's an amazing kisser, she built a cabinet, he saved a kitten… whatever you want–but you will need to fill in something. Then, after receiving your keys at the booth, the two of you head down a red carpet to the ceremony area, where you read your reason aloud to your partner, and officially hand over the key. 

 

Next it's time to put the key to use. In your booklet you'll find the 25 locations that can only be unlocked by holders of the key. Among the Key to the City locks we're excited about opening: Alexander Hamilton's tomb at Trinity Church, a normally off-limits pedestrian pathway across the George Washington Bridge, a hidden door next George Washington's portrait at the Brooklyn Museum, and a secret room at the Tortilleria Nixtamal in Queens.