Art in the Parks
Search Current and Past Exhibits
Through collaborations with a diverse group of arts organizations and artists, Parks brings to the public both experimental and traditional art in many park locations. Please browse our list of current exhibits below, explore our archives of past exhibits or read more about the Art in the Parks Program.
Current Exhibits
Citywide
LEAP, A View from the Lunch Table: Students Bringing Issues to the Table
May 5, 2010 to September 2010
Various Locations
Description:
Students from ten New York City public middle schools, with two schools representing each borough, have transformed school lunchroom tables into personalized canvases and created colorful works of public art that touch upon critical social issues in their community and across the globe. The tables, which have been installed in ten community parks across the five boroughs, are a way of giving young teens the chance to voice their opinions and reach out to the public in hopes of inspiring social change through their art. This exhibition was created by LeAp’s Public Art Program in cooperation with NYC Parks and marks the largest student exhibition in the history of NYC Parks and the first to span five boroughs. The program included visits with distinguished artists such as Tom Otterness, Christo, Chuck Close, and Vito Acconci, among many others. For 33 years, LeAp (Learning through an Expanded Art Program) has provided arts–based education to over two million students K-12 throughout New York City.
Artworks can be found through August at: Sheltering Arms Park and St. Nicholas Park in Manhattan; Fermi Playground and Irving Square Park in Brooklyn; Crotona Park and Claremont Park in the Bronx; Juniper Valley Park and Forest Park in Queens; and Silver Lake Park and Clove Lakes Park in Staten Island.
Students from ten New York City public middle schools, with two schools representing each borough, have transformed school lunchroom tables into personalized canvases and created colorful works of public art that touch upon critical social issues in their community and across the globe. The tables, which have been installed in ten community parks across the five boroughs, are a way of giving young teens the chance to voice their opinions and reach out to the public in hopes of inspiring social change through their art. This exhibition was created by LeAp’s Public Art Program in cooperation with NYC Parks and marks the largest student exhibition in the history of NYC Parks and the first to span five boroughs. The program included visits with distinguished artists such as Tom Otterness, Christo, Chuck Close, and Vito Acconci, among many others. For 33 years, LeAp (Learning through an Expanded Art Program) has provided arts–based education to over two million students K-12 throughout New York City.
Artworks can be found through August at: Sheltering Arms Park and St. Nicholas Park in Manhattan; Fermi Playground and Irving Square Park in Brooklyn; Crotona Park and Claremont Park in the Bronx; Juniper Valley Park and Forest Park in Queens; and Silver Lake Park and Clove Lakes Park in Staten Island.
For more information visit the LEAP website.
Brooklyn
Daniel Goers and Jennifer Wong, Myrtle Avenue Bird Town
May 3, 2010 to December 10, 2010
Person Square and the NW corner of Fort Greene Park
Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn
Description:
Goers and Wong will employ recycled materials and experimental building techniques to add flair to the micro-community of birdhouses. As colorful and as energetic as the birds that inhabit them, this collection of birdhouses will be the stage for an ongoing performance as birds feed, nest, build, and care for offspring. This exhibition will attract and promote the public to observe their native avian neighbors and the ecological relationship between the birds and the urban environment.
Throughout the duration of the exhibition, Goers and Wong will enact a number of educational workshops, including the South of the Navy Yards Artists stroll in May 2010, in and around the community that will teach children and adults about local bird species and environment awareness. Participants will be encouraged to build their own bird houses with supplies provided by the artists. The installation will also be regularly documented on the exhibition’s website. The artists will provide information and images of the planning, fabrication, and installation, as well as chronicle the lives of the feathered inhabitants of Myrtle Avenue Bird Town.
This is a project of the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership. For more information on this exhibition please visit the Myrtle Avenue Bird Town website.
Goers and Wong will employ recycled materials and experimental building techniques to add flair to the micro-community of birdhouses. As colorful and as energetic as the birds that inhabit them, this collection of birdhouses will be the stage for an ongoing performance as birds feed, nest, build, and care for offspring. This exhibition will attract and promote the public to observe their native avian neighbors and the ecological relationship between the birds and the urban environment.
Throughout the duration of the exhibition, Goers and Wong will enact a number of educational workshops, including the South of the Navy Yards Artists stroll in May 2010, in and around the community that will teach children and adults about local bird species and environment awareness. Participants will be encouraged to build their own bird houses with supplies provided by the artists. The installation will also be regularly documented on the exhibition’s website. The artists will provide information and images of the planning, fabrication, and installation, as well as chronicle the lives of the feathered inhabitants of Myrtle Avenue Bird Town.
This is a project of the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership. For more information on this exhibition please visit the Myrtle Avenue Bird Town website.
Anne McClain & Friends, Humanity Fountain
August 9, 2010 to November 5, 2010
Msgr. McGolrick Park, Brooklyn
Description:
With the knowledge that scent conveys memories and feelings in an impactful way, artist and perfumer Anne McClain created Humanity Fountain, a monument to everyday compassion. The fountain emits a subtle fragrance composed of all natural plant materials (white lotus, sandalwood, mate tea and diluted water). This exhibition also serves as a backdrop for educational programs by local artists, ranging from natural perfumery and botanical sciences to informative sessions on creative ways to participate in volunteer opportunities in North Brooklyn neighborhoods. For information on these program, visit trustart.org.
Commissioned by TRUST ART. In collaboration with Lance McGregor, Alan Iwamura, Isaac Tecosky, Facundo Newbery, and Jarek Klim. Supported by the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn.
With the knowledge that scent conveys memories and feelings in an impactful way, artist and perfumer Anne McClain created Humanity Fountain, a monument to everyday compassion. The fountain emits a subtle fragrance composed of all natural plant materials (white lotus, sandalwood, mate tea and diluted water). This exhibition also serves as a backdrop for educational programs by local artists, ranging from natural perfumery and botanical sciences to informative sessions on creative ways to participate in volunteer opportunities in North Brooklyn neighborhoods. For information on these program, visit trustart.org.
Commissioned by TRUST ART. In collaboration with Lance McGregor, Alan Iwamura, Isaac Tecosky, Facundo Newbery, and Jarek Klim. Supported by the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn.
Manhattan
Stephen Vitiello, A Bell for Every Minute
June 23, 2010 to June 23, 2011
14th Street Passage between West 13th and West 14th streets
The High Line, Manhattan
Description:
Artist Stephen Vitiello presents a multi-channel sound installation for which he has recorded bells all over New York City and beyond. Sounds range from the iconic rings of the New York Stock Exchange bell, the historic Dreamland bell (recorded days after it was discovered in the water off Coney Island), the United Nation’s Peace Bell, and more everyday and personal sounds of bike bells, diner bells, and neighborhood church bells. During park hours an individual bell will ring each minute from speakers placed throughout the tunnel space where it will be installed, the overtones fading out as the next bell begins. A chorus of the selected bells will play at the top of each hour, filling the space. The sounds will be represented on physical sound map that identifies the location of each bell, allowing the listener to follow the geographic journey of the recordings. Collectively, the bells are a microcosm of the urban landscape as they relate to the sounds captured throughout the daily life in New York City. The site becomes activated by the composition, inviting the passerby to engage with the High Line and its connection to the city around it.
This is a project by Creative Time and the Friends of the High Line.
Artist Stephen Vitiello presents a multi-channel sound installation for which he has recorded bells all over New York City and beyond. Sounds range from the iconic rings of the New York Stock Exchange bell, the historic Dreamland bell (recorded days after it was discovered in the water off Coney Island), the United Nation’s Peace Bell, and more everyday and personal sounds of bike bells, diner bells, and neighborhood church bells. During park hours an individual bell will ring each minute from speakers placed throughout the tunnel space where it will be installed, the overtones fading out as the next bell begins. A chorus of the selected bells will play at the top of each hour, filling the space. The sounds will be represented on physical sound map that identifies the location of each bell, allowing the listener to follow the geographic journey of the recordings. Collectively, the bells are a microcosm of the urban landscape as they relate to the sounds captured throughout the daily life in New York City. The site becomes activated by the composition, inviting the passerby to engage with the High Line and its connection to the city around it.
This is a project by Creative Time and the Friends of the High Line.
Richard Galpin, Viewing Station
May 7, 2010 to May 1, 2011
High Line, between 17th and 18th streets
The High Line, Manhattan
Description:
Richard Galpin alters photographs of cityscapes. His chosen method of manipulation is to cut and remove the top layer of the colored emulsion from his photographic prints, exposing the paper substrate. By eradicating part of the photograph, its imagery becomes transformed to the point of total abstraction. Using clean lines and sharp angles, Galpin’s technique emphasizes geometric forms, recalling early 20th century art movements such as Constructivism, Cubism, and Futurism.
For the High Line, Galpin has created a viewing station that functions similarly to his cut photographs. Park visitors are invited to look through the opening on top of the viewing post, which is lined up with a metal screen from which geometric shapes have been cut. The combination of these two devices abstracts the view of nearby buildings.
Through relatively simple means, the viewing station distorts optical perspective, making it difficult to judge spatial distance. Its isolation of fragmented areas encourages more acute observation of surface details, and subtleties of color and texture. The view looks more like a two-dimensional image – such as a photograph or painting – than three-dimensional space.
This project is presented by Friends of the High Line. For more information, visit Friends of the High Line's public art page.
Richard Galpin alters photographs of cityscapes. His chosen method of manipulation is to cut and remove the top layer of the colored emulsion from his photographic prints, exposing the paper substrate. By eradicating part of the photograph, its imagery becomes transformed to the point of total abstraction. Using clean lines and sharp angles, Galpin’s technique emphasizes geometric forms, recalling early 20th century art movements such as Constructivism, Cubism, and Futurism.
For the High Line, Galpin has created a viewing station that functions similarly to his cut photographs. Park visitors are invited to look through the opening on top of the viewing post, which is lined up with a metal screen from which geometric shapes have been cut. The combination of these two devices abstracts the view of nearby buildings.
Through relatively simple means, the viewing station distorts optical perspective, making it difficult to judge spatial distance. Its isolation of fragmented areas encourages more acute observation of surface details, and subtleties of color and texture. The view looks more like a two-dimensional image – such as a photograph or painting – than three-dimensional space.
This project is presented by Friends of the High Line. For more information, visit Friends of the High Line's public art page.
Manolo Valdes, Manolo Valdes on Broadway
May 20, 2010 to January 23, 2011
Broadway, Various locations, Manhattan
Description:
Manolo Valdes on Broadway includes sixteen bronze sculptures along Broadway from Columbus Circle to 166th Street. Each sculpture will include signage that displays mobile phone access numbers for an English and Spanish language audio tour with informative descriptions of the works.
Manolo Valdes is one of the most important and respected Spanish artists working today. Best known for his passion for past masters from Zurbaran to Velazquez, Matisse to Lichtenstein, Valdes uses their work "as a pretext" ("como pretexto") to create an entirely new aesthetic object. For example, six massive sculptures entitled Reina Mariana, each over eight feet in height and weighing over two thousand pounds, depict Queen Mariana as immortalized by Velazquez. Four of these sculptures with their abstract and simplified forms will grace the famous city landmark, Columbus Circle, as well as two at the south entrance to the 72nd Street subway station. Also sited at the subway station is Odalisca, 2006, a sculpture whose subtle forms refer to works of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Another highlight of the exhibition is the series of six monumental bronzes – all over 12 feet in height – depicting female heads, their calm facial composure and structured equilibrium offset rhythmically by dynamic ornamental head-pieces. The exhibition will also include the New York debut of Valdes' two equestrian sculptures Dama a caballo V, 2008 and Caballero V, 2008, which were inspired by Velazquez's seventeenth-century portraits.
Manolo Valdes on Broadway includes sixteen bronze sculptures along Broadway from Columbus Circle to 166th Street. Each sculpture will include signage that displays mobile phone access numbers for an English and Spanish language audio tour with informative descriptions of the works.
Manolo Valdes is one of the most important and respected Spanish artists working today. Best known for his passion for past masters from Zurbaran to Velazquez, Matisse to Lichtenstein, Valdes uses their work "as a pretext" ("como pretexto") to create an entirely new aesthetic object. For example, six massive sculptures entitled Reina Mariana, each over eight feet in height and weighing over two thousand pounds, depict Queen Mariana as immortalized by Velazquez. Four of these sculptures with their abstract and simplified forms will grace the famous city landmark, Columbus Circle, as well as two at the south entrance to the 72nd Street subway station. Also sited at the subway station is Odalisca, 2006, a sculpture whose subtle forms refer to works of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Another highlight of the exhibition is the series of six monumental bronzes – all over 12 feet in height – depicting female heads, their calm facial composure and structured equilibrium offset rhythmically by dynamic ornamental head-pieces. The exhibition will also include the New York debut of Valdes' two equestrian sculptures Dama a caballo V, 2008 and Caballero V, 2008, which were inspired by Velazquez's seventeenth-century portraits.
Various Artists, Statuesque
June 2, 2010 to December 3, 2010
City Hall Park, Manhattan
Description:
Public Art Fund brings together a dynamic group of six international artists as they reinvent figurative sculpture for a new era. Statuesque features 10 major works of art by Pawel Althamer, Huma Bhabha, Aaron Curry, Thomas Houseago, Matthew Monahan, and Rebecca Warren. The exhibition is the first time these artists have been shown together, revealing a striking interest in the figure that transcends national boundaries. As the first project curated by Public Art Fund's new Director and Chief Curator Nicholas Baume, Statuesque also marks the New York debut of each work included. In conceiving Statuesque, Baume makes a persuasive argument for the renewed significance of the figure in international contemporary sculpture.
Statuesque celebrates the return of figurative sculpture, but not in the classical sense. Neither literal portraits nor traditional monuments, these works push the expressive potential of sculptural forms and materials. While the approaches and backgrounds of the artists are very different, their work shares a number of key characteristics. They tend towards abstraction over realism, assemblage over the readymade, construction of form over casting from life, and physicality and texture over refinement of finish. Conceptually sophisticated, historically informed, and expressively direct, Statuesque finds in the human figure a sculptural tradition ripe for experimentation.
This is a project of the Public Art Fund.
Public Art Fund brings together a dynamic group of six international artists as they reinvent figurative sculpture for a new era. Statuesque features 10 major works of art by Pawel Althamer, Huma Bhabha, Aaron Curry, Thomas Houseago, Matthew Monahan, and Rebecca Warren. The exhibition is the first time these artists have been shown together, revealing a striking interest in the figure that transcends national boundaries. As the first project curated by Public Art Fund's new Director and Chief Curator Nicholas Baume, Statuesque also marks the New York debut of each work included. In conceiving Statuesque, Baume makes a persuasive argument for the renewed significance of the figure in international contemporary sculpture.
Statuesque celebrates the return of figurative sculpture, but not in the classical sense. Neither literal portraits nor traditional monuments, these works push the expressive potential of sculptural forms and materials. While the approaches and backgrounds of the artists are very different, their work shares a number of key characteristics. They tend towards abstraction over realism, assemblage over the readymade, construction of form over casting from life, and physicality and texture over refinement of finish. Conceptually sophisticated, historically informed, and expressively direct, Statuesque finds in the human figure a sculptural tradition ripe for experimentation.
This is a project of the Public Art Fund.
Valerie Hegarty, Autumn on the Hudson Valley with Branches
November 11, 2009 to November 2010
West 20th Street, northern perimeter fence
The High Line, Manhattan
Description:
Autumn on the Hudson Valley with Branches imagines a nineteenth-century Hudson River School landscape painting that has been left outdoors, exposed to the elements. The canvas is tattered and frayed, and its partially exposed stretcher bars appear to be morphing into tree branches, as if reverting to their natural state. The painted portion of the work is based on Jasper Francis Cropsey's Autumn on the Hudson River (1860), a bucolic landscape that shows none of the effects of the Industrial Revolution of its day. Since the nineteenth century, the Hudson River has been associated with both Arcadian beauty and industrial development, despite the contradiction between the two. Today, along Manhattan’s Hudson River, one can view fading remnants of the waterfront as an active shipping port, as well as recent efforts to return it to a more “natural” state through the development of park areas and walking paths, including the High Line. The focus of Hegarty’s work is the collision of nature and culture, past and present.
This is a project of Friends of the High Line. For more information, visit Friends of the High Line's public art page.
Autumn on the Hudson Valley with Branches imagines a nineteenth-century Hudson River School landscape painting that has been left outdoors, exposed to the elements. The canvas is tattered and frayed, and its partially exposed stretcher bars appear to be morphing into tree branches, as if reverting to their natural state. The painted portion of the work is based on Jasper Francis Cropsey's Autumn on the Hudson River (1860), a bucolic landscape that shows none of the effects of the Industrial Revolution of its day. Since the nineteenth century, the Hudson River has been associated with both Arcadian beauty and industrial development, despite the contradiction between the two. Today, along Manhattan’s Hudson River, one can view fading remnants of the waterfront as an active shipping port, as well as recent efforts to return it to a more “natural” state through the development of park areas and walking paths, including the High Line. The focus of Hegarty’s work is the collision of nature and culture, past and present.
This is a project of Friends of the High Line. For more information, visit Friends of the High Line's public art page.
Miranda July, Eleven Heavy Things
May 29, 2010 to October 3, 2010
Union Square Park, Manhattan
Description:
Eleven Heavy Things, a series of 11 sculptures that encourage viewer interaction, was first exhibited within Giardino delle Vergini in Italy for the 53rd International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. This second incarnation of Eleven Heavy Things marks its United States debut.
The cast fiber-glass, steel-lined pieces are designed for interaction: pedestals to stand on, tablets with holes, and free-standing abstract headdresses. A series of three pedestals in ascending height, The Guilty One, The Guiltier One, The Guiltiest One, ask the viewer to ascribe his or her guilt relative to the people around him. A large flat shape, painted with Burberry plaid, hovers on a pole, waiting to become someone’s aura. Another hanging shape looks like an intricate lace headdress. A series of tablets invite heads, arms, legs, and one finger. A wider pedestal for two people to hug reads, “We don’t know each other, we’re just hugging for the picture.” July assumes and invites the picture — 11 photo opportunities, in a city where one is always clutching a camera. Though the work begins as sculpture, it becomes a performance that is only complete when these tourist photos are uploaded onto personal blogs and sent in emails — at which point the audience changes, and the subject clearly becomes the participants, revealing themselves through the work.
Eleven Heavy Things, a series of 11 sculptures that encourage viewer interaction, was first exhibited within Giardino delle Vergini in Italy for the 53rd International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. This second incarnation of Eleven Heavy Things marks its United States debut.
The cast fiber-glass, steel-lined pieces are designed for interaction: pedestals to stand on, tablets with holes, and free-standing abstract headdresses. A series of three pedestals in ascending height, The Guilty One, The Guiltier One, The Guiltiest One, ask the viewer to ascribe his or her guilt relative to the people around him. A large flat shape, painted with Burberry plaid, hovers on a pole, waiting to become someone’s aura. Another hanging shape looks like an intricate lace headdress. A series of tablets invite heads, arms, legs, and one finger. A wider pedestal for two people to hug reads, “We don’t know each other, we’re just hugging for the picture.” July assumes and invites the picture — 11 photo opportunities, in a city where one is always clutching a camera. Though the work begins as sculpture, it becomes a performance that is only complete when these tourist photos are uploaded onto personal blogs and sent in emails — at which point the audience changes, and the subject clearly becomes the participants, revealing themselves through the work.
Fritz Koenig, The Sphere
March 11, 2002 to Present
Battery Park, Manhattan
Description:
Fritz Koenig's The Sphere, a 45,000 pound sculpture made of steel and bronze, adorned the fountain at the World Trade Center's Tobin Plaza from 1971 to September 11, 2001. Bent and damaged, but still recognizable, the sculpture has been relocated to Battery Park, where it stands as a powerful temporary memorial commemorating the lives of those lost in the World Trade Center attack and in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. On September 11, 2002, a dedication was held to officially recognize the artwork as an interim memorial and to light an eternal flame in memory of those lost.
The Sphere is on long-term loan from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Media Advisory
Video: Ceremony to illuminate The Sphere.
Fritz Koenig's The Sphere, a 45,000 pound sculpture made of steel and bronze, adorned the fountain at the World Trade Center's Tobin Plaza from 1971 to September 11, 2001. Bent and damaged, but still recognizable, the sculpture has been relocated to Battery Park, where it stands as a powerful temporary memorial commemorating the lives of those lost in the World Trade Center attack and in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. On September 11, 2002, a dedication was held to officially recognize the artwork as an interim memorial and to light an eternal flame in memory of those lost.
The Sphere is on long-term loan from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Media Advisory
Video: Ceremony to illuminate The Sphere.
Key to the City
June 3, 2010 to September 6, 2010
Times Square, Broadway Between 43rd & 44th streerts, Manhattan
Description:
For centuries, the key to the city has been used to honor a city’s heroes and visiting dignitaries. Now, artist Paul Ramírez Jonas has created a Key to the City that is not only a symbolic award, but also a functional key—opening spaces across all five boroughs of New York City. This Key to the City is intended for everyday citizens, who will award one another the key for reasons large and small. Once in hand, the key launches a citywide exploration of backdoors, front gates, community gardens, graveyards, and museums that suggests that the city is a series of spaces that are either locked or unlocked.
Key to the City is presented by Creative Time in cooperation with the City of New York. For more information, visit the Creative Time website.
For centuries, the key to the city has been used to honor a city’s heroes and visiting dignitaries. Now, artist Paul Ramírez Jonas has created a Key to the City that is not only a symbolic award, but also a functional key—opening spaces across all five boroughs of New York City. This Key to the City is intended for everyday citizens, who will award one another the key for reasons large and small. Once in hand, the key launches a citywide exploration of backdoors, front gates, community gardens, graveyards, and museums that suggests that the city is a series of spaces that are either locked or unlocked.
Key to the City is presented by Creative Time in cooperation with the City of New York. For more information, visit the Creative Time website.
Jean-Pierre Rives, Ribbons of Memory
February 16, 2010 to September 5, 2010
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, Manhattan
Description:
Jean Pierre Rives, born the 31st of December, 1952 in Saint Simon, a suburb of Toulouse, France, revealed his passion for sculpture almost three decades ago and rapidly imposed himself as an unparalleled sculptor in the world of contemporary art. Well known for his world famous exploits as Captain of the French Rugby team in the 70s, we now find the same irresistible burst of strength in him as a sculptor and in his work. Jean Pierre Rives sculpture “Ribbons of Memory”, is a construction of cut and bent welded steel I-beams. He created this sculpture in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Ribbons of Memory is a collaborative project proposed by D’Artagnan, in cooperation with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and the Friends of Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.
Jean Pierre Rives, born the 31st of December, 1952 in Saint Simon, a suburb of Toulouse, France, revealed his passion for sculpture almost three decades ago and rapidly imposed himself as an unparalleled sculptor in the world of contemporary art. Well known for his world famous exploits as Captain of the French Rugby team in the 70s, we now find the same irresistible burst of strength in him as a sculptor and in his work. Jean Pierre Rives sculpture “Ribbons of Memory”, is a construction of cut and bent welded steel I-beams. He created this sculpture in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Ribbons of Memory is a collaborative project proposed by D’Artagnan, in cooperation with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and the Friends of Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.