NYCs miraculously saved Alice in Wonderland hospital mural goes on public display for first time

A stunning New Deal-era mural of “Alice in Wonderland” characters that was dramatically rescued from a shuttered Manhattan hospital is now on public display for the first time.The whimsical, sweeping panel series, dubbed “Alice of Wonderland Visiting New York,” was created between 1938 and 1940 by New York artist Abram Champanier as part of a federally funded WPA project for the children’s ward at Gouverneur Hospital, where many young patients were being treated for tuberculosis on the Lower East Side.Then just before the aged hospital’s interior was gutted in 1981, the historic panels were saved and restored by conservators and volunteers — a monumental effort that was nothing short of a miracle, art experts said.Now all 16 precious panels, including two recreated from destroyed sections, are on public display for the first time in an exhibit titled “Another Wonderland: Abram Campanier’s Alice Mural,” which opened June 6 at the Museum of the City of New York on the Upper East Side.“It’s a very important piece to be shown because this mural is the only remaining federal art project mural that was created for a children’s hospital ward during the New Deal: It was very nearly lost,” exhibition curator Lily Tuttle told The Post.The Big Apple-infused masterpiece depicts Alice and friends on adventures such as flying over the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty, exploring Coney Island and the Central Park Zoo and riding a No.4 train.“For a kid living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, this really would have felt like a fantasy land,” Tuttle said.“It’s also a very modern vision of New York: The Empire State Building was still less than 10 years old, the fact that they’re flying in airplanes, the [ocean liner the SS] Normandie was quite a celebrity at the time,” she said, referring to some of the structures depicted in the murals.The murals also represent a historic early example of art therapy, according to reps from NYC Health...