Art in the Parks

Talking Statues brings together internationally acclaimed authors and actors to give voice to carefully selected statues worldwide. Started in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2013 by documentary filmmaker David Peter Fox, the project has since expanded to Helsinki, London, San Diego, Berlin, and Chicago. The New York installation of this project will feature 35 monuments throughout the city’s five boroughs that share stories via smartphones. Signs printed with QR codes will be posted near the participating statues, which will prompt the statue to “call” the visitor. The monuments will “speak” 18 different languages and represent more than 20 nations.

Participating statues can be found in Columbus Park, Continental Army Plaza and Steeplechase Park in Brooklyn; D’Auria-Murphy Triangle in the Bronx; The Battery, Bryant Park, Central Park, Kimlau Square, Riverside Park, Stuyvesant Square and Union Square Park in Manhattan; Athens Square, Columbus Square and Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens; and Tompkinsville Park in Staten Island. For a full list and map, please visit www.newyorktalkingstatues.com.

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 George Boorujy, Christo, Nancy Chunn, Maia Cruz Palileo, Daze, Julie Heffernan, Stephen Powers, Risa Puno, Andre Rubin, and Federico Solmi. Since 1977, 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 in Claremont Park and Crotona Park in the Bronx, Bensonhurst Park and Sternberg Park in Brooklyn, Riverside Park and Captain Jacob Joseph Playground in Manhattan, Benninger Park and Forest Park in Queens, and Clove Lakes Park and Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten Island.
This exhibition is presented by LEAP.

In one of New York City’s most vibrant public art installations, 62 unique artist-designed pianos are placed in parks and public spaces throughout the city’s five boroughs, including 35 in NYC Parks, for anyone and everyone to play. For three weeks this June, the pianos will bring individuals and communities together in an open festival of art for all. After their time on the streets, Sing for Hope will transport the instruments in NYC public schools, where they will become hubs for Sing for Hope’s ongoing creative programs and enrich students’ lives for years to come. This year, Sing for Hope will place its 400th unique piano artwork in the five boroughs, making NYC host to more street pianos than any other city in the world. As New York City’s largest recurring public art project, the Sing for Hope Pianos impacts an estimated 2 million people each year. For more information and a list of locations visit Sing for Hope’s Pop-Up Pianos website.

This exhibition is present by Sing for Hope.

Through the use of layering, pattern, geometry and the visual suggestion of movement, the collection of murals throughout Mullaly Bikepark strive to aesthetically represent the technical precision and skill necessary to accomplish tricks on and off the ramp. 

Funding for this project was made possible by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as part of an initiative to create health-inspired public art installations that encourage park use and strengthen community connections.

This exhibition is part of Art in the Parks: Active Open Space presented by Mullaly Bikepark with the Department for Health and Mental Hygiene, the Fund for Public Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Image Credit: LAMKAT in collaboration with Laura Alvarez, Untitled, Courtesy of the Artist

Through "Faces of Railroad Park," DreamYard artists Harold Simmons and Matthew Westerby, along with David Flores, facilitated conversations with community members about healthy habits that people are already engaged with, discussion around how folks make use of parks and other public open spaces, and participants' thoughts on what they would like to see more of when it comes to their parks and public spaces. Interview subjects were also photographed, and these digital images were printed onto a vinyl material and then installed around the comfort station in Railroad Park. The artists will also release a podcast episode focusing on the project (and featuring interviews with participants). 

DreamYard programs develop artistic voice, nurture young peoples’ desire to make change and cultivate the skills necessary to reach positive goals. Young people in the Bronx need a continuous set of supports to help them towards positive outcomes as they navigate their educational pathway. Through offering sustained and meaningful supports, youth will develop the necessary tools to become creative and engaged citizens, life-long learners and the leaders and innovators of the 21st century.

Funding for this project was made possible by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as part of an initiative to create health-inspired public art installations that encourage park use and strengthen community connections.

This exhibition is part of Art in the Parks: Active Open Space presented with the Department for Health and Mental Hygiene, the Fund for Public Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Painted along the walls of this community playground, this installation consists of three murals by Lady K Fever. Birds Eye View offers a seasonal journey through the eyes of a soaring red–tailed hawk overlooking the park. Located on the park’s entrance ramp, Soaring transforms Bronx skies into a fantastical scene of hot air balloons, butterflies, dragonflies, moths, and ladybugs. Natural Elements presents a narrative of the seasonal life cycle of leaves as well as recognizable flora and fauna like the ruby–throated hummingbird and daylily, Bronx’s official flower.

This exhibition is presented by the Friends of Mosholu Parkland.

Lovie Pignata activates a blacktop with a bold, painted replica of the nearby Bronx River, highlighting the importance of this waterway. She has also installed retired canoes from local non-profits, which will be retrofitted with seating, chessboards, planters, and wayfinding signage.

This exhibition was made possible by the Art in the Parks: UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant.

Inspired by American novelist Richard Bach’s bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Patricia Cazorla and Nancy Saleme use oversized, colorful sculptures of the city’s sparrows as a metaphor for the search for equality. Sparrows are creatures of resilience, audacity, intelligence, and beauty that mirror many of the qualities of New York City’s communities.

This exhibition was made possible by the Art in the Parks: UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant.

Swale is a floating food forest built atop a barge that travels to piers in New York City, offering educational programming and welcoming visitors to harvest herbs, fruits and vegetables for free. Swale strives to strengthen stewardship of public waterways and land, while working to shift policies that will increase the presence of edible perennial landscapes.

In the summer of 2016, Swale launched at Concrete Plant Park in the South Bronx, one of the largest food deserts in the United States. Food deserts are a reality in many communities in New York City; as many as three million New Yorkers live in communities with limited access to places where they can get fresh produce. Swale began as an idea to advocate for food to be grown on some of the 30,000 acres of public land in New York City, through urban stewardship initiatives led by community partners in the South Bronx.

For more information about programming, hours, and Swale’s current location please visit http://www.swaleny.org/.

Created by Bronx artist Diana Perea, the Bronx Tracks was inspired by French muralist Nelio as well as the unique sounds, movement and cityscape of the Bronx. The mural is a site-specific installation designed to activate the park and to create a more pedestrian-friendly experience along E. 161st Street between the bustling courthouse center at Morris Avenue and the less trafficked three-block stretch to Elton Avenue. A team of young DreamYard artists and an intergenerational team of community volunteers installed the mural, spurring conversation, creativity, and a new favorite destination among community members and groups.

The mural’s abstract forms and vibrant colors reenergize Railroad Park, the adjacent NYCHA Morrisania Air Rights building, and the path to the often-overlooked Metro North Station directly behind it. Perea’s innovative techniques emphasize the beauty of the existing structures, and the mural’s influences by Picasso, Delaunay, Kandinsky, and Malevich can be admired by all who play in and pass by Railroad Park and E. 161st Street.

This exhibit is presented by WHEDco and The DreamYard Project in partnership with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).