Beyoncé, Jay Z, and 130,552 Other People Visited Kara Walker’s Sphinx

Jay Z, Beyonce, and Blue Ivy at the Kara Walker exhibition.
Photo: Beyonce/Tumblr.

Among the throngs of visitors who packed into the Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn during the last few weekends of Kara Walker‘s Creative Time projectA Subtlety, Or the Marvelous Sugar Baby,” were power couple Jay Z and Beyoncé, with their daughter Blue Ivy in tow, as documented on the superstar singer’s Tumblr blog.

Jay Z, Beyoncé, and Blue Ivy at the Kara Walker exhibition.<br />Photo: Beyonce/Tumblr.

Jay Z, Beyoncé, and Blue Ivy at the Kara Walker exhibition. Courtesy of Beyonce/Tumblr.

On Tuesday morning, Creative Time released attendance figures for the blockbuster public art project, which drew a whopping 130,554 visitors to the half-demolished Brooklyn sugar plant over its two-month run. The accompanying and controversial social media campaign was similarly successful, eliciting an astonishing 24,164 Instagram posts with the hash tag #KaraWalkerDomino.

Other markers of success cited by Creative Time include the sale of 7,855 posters for the exhibition, a total of 210 volunteers employed (which is a contradiction in terms, but whatever), and an impressive six features in the New York Times. To that tally we’d add the following: One visit from the Google Street View camera and one dedicated selfie-generating website.


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