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AccessibilityArt in the Parks
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 and our archives of past exhibits below. You can also see past grant opportunities or read more about the Art in the Parks Program.
Public Art Map and Guide
Find out which current exhibits are on display near you, and browse our permanent monument collection.
Search Current and Past Exhibits
2010
Manhattan
City Lore, Birth of a City
September 1, 2009 to March 10, 2010
Bowling Green, Manhattan
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
On September 4, 400 years to the month from when Henry Hudson and some 20 seamen sailed their ship the Halve Maen (Half Moon) into New York Harbor, City Lore and NY 400 opened Birth of a City: Nieuw Amsterdam and Old New York, celebrating the city’s colonial Dutch heritage with illustrated signs throughout lower Manhattan. A stencil on the sidewalk maps out the historic waterline, and demonstrates how the village of Nieuw Amsterdam was nestled within what is now the bustling Lower Manhattan cityscape. An informal stroll along the marked pathway of Birth of a City shows how Dutch traditions of commerce, government, religious tolerance, and ethnic diversity helped shape the rise of New York and the United States.
Two of the twelve signs in the tour are in city parks, at Bowling Green and City Hall.
Mel Kendrick
September 17, 2009 to February 15, 2010
Madison Square Park, Manhattan
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
In this exhibition, a new series of five large-scale, striated cast stone sculptures by New York-based sculptor Mel Kendrick run down the center of Madison Square Park’s oval lawn. Kendrick’s abstract sculptures are cast in black and white stone from molds carved from EPS foam. This series of new works constitute a significant evolution in the oeuvre of a sculptor who has been exhibiting his work to critical acclaim since the mid-1970s. While they continue to reflect Kendrick’s career-long focus on the creative process and investigation of the relationship between materials and form, these bold and imposing new works (standing nearly 12’ tall) will be among his largest, as well as some rare works in cast stone from an artist renowned for his use of wood. This is a project of the Madison Square Park Conservancy.
Robert Moorhead and Granger Moorhead, Ice Heart
February 11, 2010 to February 14, 2010
Times Square, 46th Street and Broadway, Manhattan
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
Moorhead & Moorhead’s “Ice Heart” won the invitational competition to build a Valentine in Times Square with the aid of the Time Square Alliance. Simultaneously architectural and natural, Ice Heart is a ten foot tall heart built of masonry-scaled blocks of ice. Ultimately a celebration of the temporary nature of the Valentine’s installation, it will transform as it begins to melt, eventually disappearing completely. “The Ice Heart will constantly change as it crystalline form picks up the lights, colors and chaos of the Times Square – we look forward to the kaleidoscopic effect, and think visitors will enjoy it as well,” commented Granger Moorhead.
The Ice Heart will be installed in Times Square at 46th and Broadway on the morning on February 11th and be protected from melting until February 14th. After Valentine’s Day, the sculpture will melt until it disappears.
Paolo Corvino, Tempo # 5
July 27, 2009 to February 7, 2010
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, Manhattan
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
Native New Yorker and former prizefighter Paolo Corvino has experimented with many artistic styles. His recent sculptures, geometric abstractions like Tempo # 5, have presented brightly–colored, minimal forms. This work is made from painted aluminum.
Queens
Socrates Sculpture Park EAF 2010
September 12, 2010 to March 6, 2011
Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
Socrates Sculpture Park’s annual emerging artist exhibition is the fruit of the fellowship program, in which up-and-coming artists make outdoor sculpture, many of them for their first time, with the assistance of Socrates staff. The full list of artists includes: Gavin Anderson, Scott Andresen, Rachel Beach, Trenton Duerksen, Jonathan Durham, Daniele Frazier, Frank Haines, Jonggeon Lee, MaryKate Maher, Christopher Manzione, Clive Murphy, Jess Perlitz, Lina Puerta, Jory Rabinovitz, David M. Scanavino, Lior Shvil, Ruby Sky Stiller and Jason Villegas.
EAF artists are selected through an open call for proposals and are awarded a grant and a residency in the Park’s outdoor studio. Fellowship artists are also provided with technical support and access to tools, materials, and equipment to facilitate the production of large-scale public sculptures for exhibition in the Park.
The fellows develop their projects throughout the summer in the open studio and on site in the landscape, offering visitors the opportunity to experience both the creation and presentation of their works. Representing a broad range of materials, working methods, and subject matter, the diverse sculptural works in this exhibition are presented against the Park’s spectacular waterfront view of the Manhattan skyline.
For more information, please visit www.socratessculpturepark.org.
It's My Park segment about Socrates Sculpture Park.
Free Style Arts Association, Giant Participation-Based Found Object Sculptures
08/24/2010 to 08/28/2010
Borough-wide, Queens
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
Giant Found Object Sculptures will be constructed on various sidewalks and street corners throughout Queens, New York. You are invited to come help BUILD these sculptures. It is vital that many people participate. Sponsored by the Queens Council on the Arts and other cultural organizations, the art group Free Style Arts Association will set up giant buildable sculptures and make materials available to the public in order to engage residential communities in the arts.
Participate in some of the sculptures:
- Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2–6 p.m.; Sunnyside, 46th Street at Queens Blvd.; 7 train to 46 St.
- Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2-6 p.m.; Roosevelt Ave. at 51st St., Queens; 7 train to 52nd
- Thursday, Aug. 26, 3-7 p.m.; Citi Field; 7 train to Flushing Meadows
- Friday, Aug. 27, 2-6 p.m.; L.I.C., Vernon Blvd. at 48th Ave.; 7 train to Vernon
- Saturday, Aug. 28, 1-5 p.m.; P.S.1 Warm Up party, Jackson Ave at 23rd St.; 7, E, V, G train to Court Square/23 Ely Ave
This project is presented by Free Style Arts Association. For more information, visit Free Style Arts Association’s website.
Cityscape: Surveying the Urban Biotope
May 2, 2010 to August 1, 2010
Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
Curated by Alyson Baker and Marichris Ty, the show will explore the presence of nature in the fabric of urban life. Cityscape includes eleven new works by artists: Saul Becker, George Boorujy, William Cordova, David Kennedy Cutler, Lillian Gerson, Janelle Iglesias, Katherine McLeod, Ester Partegàs, Zena Verda Pesta, Christine Howard Sandoval, and Mark Lawrence Stafford.
The introduction or invasion of plants and animals in the cityscape symbolizes a broad scope of conditions and dynamics - from far reaching social, political, economic and aesthetic issues to an individual's relationship with their immediate surroundings. Nature's presence in the urban environment can take many forms: green roofs, community gardens, city parks, corporate plazas; Peregrine Falcons nesting on 5th Avenue balconies; vast populations of rats and pigeons that have readily adapted to the habitat of busy streets; Ailanthus trees growing from crumbling buildings, abandoned construction sites, and cracks in the sidewalk. This range from invited and cultivated to invasive and insidious represents everything from the most innovative urban planning and a trend towards the greening of cities, to a symptom of and contributor to the decay of the built environment.
For more information, visit Socrates Sculpture Park’s website.
Socrates Sculpture Park EAF 2009
September 13, 2009 to March 8, 2010
Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
Socrates Sculpture Park’s annual emerging artist exhibition is the fruit of the fellowship program, in which up-and-coming artists make outdoor sculpture, many of them for their first time, with the assistance of Socrates staff. This year’s highlights include a pile of cakes by Aaron King and a “Master Station” subway entrance by Brina Thurston. The full list of artists includes: David Brooks, Pilar Conde, Zack Davis, Christian de Vietri, Aaron King, Zak Kitnick, Lynn Koble, Tamara Kostianovsky, Mads Lynnerup, Wyatt Nash, Navin June Norling, Andrea Stanislav, Brina Thurston, Kon Trubkovich, Lan Tuazon, and Erik & Ninh Vysocan.
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