New Yorkers old enough to remember the Columbus Circle area before Lincoln Center was built were witnesses, during the 1950s and 1960s, to a remarkable urban transformation. In those distant days, street life just north of the Circle was animated by an assortment of pimps, drug pushers, drifters, and drunks. The landscape west of Broadway was a jumble of tenements, rooming houses, and bars: a territory most memorably described by William Burroughs. It was The Rockefeller-Moses bulldozer that cleared the way for the new performing arts complex; although the patina of age has not improved the people’s palace architecture, plans are underway to correct at least some of the many mistakes of the past. Meanwhile, a number of mega-shops, foreign film venues, and decent restaurants have added to the neighborhood’s attraction.
A most notable, if only slightly unexpected, early arrival in this decidedly profane environment was the venerable American Bible Society. In 1966, it built an austere modernist structure for its new headquarters at the corner of Broadway and 61st Street. The building took on a slightly more welcoming appearance about twelve years ago with the addition of an enclosed glass forecourt that soon began hosting small shows specific to the Society’s mission—not exactly momentous cultural events. By 2005, however, an independent entity was created and given its own space on the level just above the entry. It is called The Museum of Biblical Art (mobia) and, with its present exhibition “Passion in Venice,” promises to command serious