Art in the Parks

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 Emma Amos, Mark di Suvero, Audrey Flack, Christo, Mel Kendrick, and Sanford Biggers, 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: Central Park and Augustus Saint-Gaudens Playground in Manhattan; Kaiser Park and Detective Joseph Mayrose Park in Brooklyn; Crotona Park and Claremont Park in the Bronx; Juniper Valley Park and Forest Park in Queens; and Silver Lake Park and Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten Island.

For more information visit the LEAP website.

The form and function of Flock House is inspired by current patterns of global human migration, immigration, and pilgrimage. Through workshops, organized events, an interactive website, and narrated cell phone tours, the Flock House project catalyzes and enhances community-interdependence, resourcefulness, learning, curiosity, and creative exploration.

Mobile Flock House living systems are interstitial, autonomous, and dependent on local community relationships to maintain, share, and operate. As living systems, they function as bridges for cross-discipline, cross-boundary, and cross-border notions of property and polity.

Built collaboratively upon re­claimed, recycled, redesigned, and rethought materials, Flock House promotes wider adoption of natural systems including rainwater capture, inner-city agriculture, and solar and human-powered energy technologies.

Flock House #3 - Microsphere:
June 17 - 30: Battery Park, Manhattan. Inhabitants:  Brian Zegeer, Rob Colvin, Mary Mattingly.
July 2 - 14: Coleman Oval Park, Lower Manhattan. Inhabitant: Scott Beiben
July 15 - August 30: Bronx Museum, Bronx. Inhabitant: William Lamson (July 15-July 30), Lonny Grafman (August 1-15), Scott Weiner (August 16-25)

Flock House #7 - Terrapod:
June 15 - 30: Queens Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Inhabitant: Christopher Robbins (Ghana ThinkTank).
July 1 - 14: DUMBO, Pearl Street Triangle, Brooklyn. Inhabitant: Amelia Marzac
July 15 - 31: Snug Harbor, Staten Island. Inhabitant: Kelly Loudenberg
August 1 - 15: Bronx – Van Cortlandt Park. Inhabitants: Esteban Silva and Harley Aussoleil.

Flock House # 8 - Chromasphere:
June 27 – September 6: 125 Maiden Lane, Manhattan.  Inhabitant: Greg Lindquist.

Flock House #4 - Cocoon:
June: Rooftop, Downtown Brooklyn, NY. Inhabitant: Mary Mattingly
July 7 – September: Architecture Omi Sculpture Park, Ghent, NY.

This project is presented in conjunction with the support of generous sponsors.

Katherine Daniels transforms everyday objects and materials into elaborately woven ornamental forms in her site specific installation, Ornamental Paths. The large-scale pieces are currently on view on the Grand Concourse between 161st and 164th Streets in the Bronx. “The placement of the weavings defines the inner triangular shape at the heart of Joyce Kilmer Park and creates a place where people can enter into a spatial drawing.” The brick and mosaic Art Deco patterns that have historically defined the neighborhood’s architectural landmarks are interpreted through Daniel’s interlaced geometric forms, horizontal stripes, and vertical bands that grace the park’s permanent wire fencing. Transcendent of an ordinary walk through the park, a stroll through Ornamental Paths will be a new experience full of color and history.

This exhibition is presented by the Clare Weiss Emerging Artist Award.

The sculpture was created by an international team of seven selected League students during a nine-month program led by master sculptor Greg Wyatt.  In its second year,  ASL altered the 2011 “Mask" sculpture. In the artists will turn the mask to face the sky instead of the park and insert branch and leaf forms as if the mask were slowly but surely growing in an organic fashion like the surrounding trees.  Included in the exhibition are Sequoya Aono, Roberto Franzone, HakSul Lee, Damien Armondo Vera, Olga Rudenko, Michael Cloud Hirschfeld, and Renata Pugh.

A collaborative installation created by the team is also on concurrently on view in Riverside South Park in Manhattan.

This work was made possible by the Art Students League’s Model to Monument Program.

Wave Hill has commissioned award-winning choreographer Merián Soto to return to the Bronx, her artistic home, to develop and perform Branch Dances at Wave Hill. This year-long work consists of an outdoor performance each season, with the first in October. Five dancers, Beau Hancock, Shavon Norris, Jumatatu  Poe, Olive Prince and Marion Ramirez, and musician Robert (Tigger) Benford connect body, mind, place and natural elements to stillness in locations that respond to Wave Hill’s brilliant foliage, sweeping vistas and sculptural trees.

Schedule of Performances

• Saturday, October 29, 2011 (Target Free Morning)
• Saturday, January 7, 2012 (Target Free Morning)
• Sunday, April 22, 2012*
• Saturday, June 23, 2012 (Target Free Morning)*

*Dates are tentative

This is a project by Wave Hill

This project is presented by Two Trees Development.

The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership presents Tomorrow, a temporary installation by Akihiro Ito. From September 27, 2012 through August 2013, the piece will be installed at the northeast corner of Fort Greene Park (Myrtle and Washington Park).

Akihiro Ito’s sculpture, Tomorrow, illustrates the harmony between humans and their natural surroundings, and reminds us of the importance of preserving our environment. Tomorrow is made of 600 pieces of laminated dimensional wood (Douglas fir) which form the shape of a baby – a symbol of future generations. He used this material to draw the connection between people and nature. Wood is environmentally friendly as it emits no pollutants, is a familiar resource that has been utilized for millennia, and instills feelings of warmth, serenity, and relief in people. Mr. Ito says, “Nowadays, we are facing serious environmental problems such as global warming, waste and resource depletion. We have to preserve nature and save our earth for our future generations and for all living beings. I hope this sculpture provides an opportunity for people to think about humanity’s connection to nature, and reminds us that we are all part of earth’s family.”

“Bringing sculpture to Myrtle Avenue is part of the Partnership’s larger public art initiative to underscore the neighborhood’s creative spirit and highlight our public spaces with art,” says Meredith Phillips Almeida, the Partnership’s Deputy Director. Throughout the duration of the installation, an informational card about the artist and work, designed by the Partnership, will be available at the site. The Partnership will also develop a site visit guide for local schools.

Please visit the Partnership’s website for more information about the organization and their initiatives.

Fort Greene Park welcomes New Zealand artist Kate Newby’s latest site-specific sculpture exhibition, “How funny are you today, New York.” The new work builds on her ongoing interest in creating work that is ephemeral and often peripheral that is integrated into public environments.  Situated in the historic setting of Fort Greene Park, a place where art, life, tradition, and culture have coalesced for centuries, Newby finds her muse in a pronounced boulder locals call “the Grey Painted Rock.” Creating a space where semi-precious and industrial materials get integrated seamlessly into the urban landscape, Newby’s installation invites park visitors to stop and rest or play while simultaneously forcing the viewer to address the artist’s reconsideration of the environment’s norms.

This exhibition is presented by the International Studio and Curatorial Program.

J.J. Byrne Playground and Old Stone House welcome the installation of an outdoor public library designed to stimulate book sharing in the neighboring communities. Created in the style of a typical brownstone home, "The Hundred Story House" reflects the native architecture and literary tradition of Brooklyn. The artist and producer, Leon Reid IV and Julia Marchesi, hope that the neighborhood will grow closer as a community through the mutual exchange of literature encouraged by this interactive artwork. So leave a book, take a book, and share your most beloved story with the hope that you could discover a new favorite in the windowsΑ