New York Public Library “Lunch Dances”

Source: Monica Bill Barnes & Company

If a brand is an experience, then The New York Public Library (NYPL) is proving it. Over lunch.

This storied Manhattan institution has lived on screen in everything from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" to "Sex and the City." It hosted the very first Earth Day. It houses the original Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals.

Did you know that?

It has personal significance for me. During my time at Columbia University, I spent countless hours in the NYPL's reading rooms. The sanctuary of those hallways and the weight of that history felt appropriate for studying in Manhattan. I soaked it all in, in those tremendous stacks and under that incredible lighting.

Source: nyc.gov

But that was then, here’s what’s happening now.

In collaboration with the renowned Monica Bill Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri, NYPL has created "Lunch Dances."

Their concept is to simply bring dance where it doesn't belong. Like in a quiet library!

So during the lunch hour, audiences move through the Library's buildings wearing headphones. What they hear are personal stories and choreography that responds to what surrounds them. Dance meets the stacks and movement meets the reading rooms.

Monica Bill Barnes & Company

Performance art meets the place where knowledge lives.

“The New York Times” named it one of the best dance performances of 2025. Tickets sell out like a Broadway show, in a New York minute.

What’s so smart is that the NYPL was already a major tourist destination. "Lunch Dances" simply provides a new reason to visit, at a new time. It turns a landmark into an experience. It makes the Library itself the main character in a provocative story.

That's how you deepen a brand and its relationship with its audience, by activating it.

What's your experience? JIM