Art in the Parks

‘Tripod’ is made up of three casts of a found piece of rotting wood. It is remade in ghostly matte white in reference to death masks and a homage to the object’s prior life. The wood is elevated to a place of honor generally reserved for well known, and/or well regarded, human subjects.

Evolving Terrain brings together four artists’ work, placed throughout Fort Tryon Park. The show includes work by artists Anthony Heinz May, Audrey Shachnow, Tom Monsees, and Matthias Neumann. Their work addresses the natural landscape within an ever-changing city, and hopes to create a dialogue between communities, artists, and nature, and the ways in which the natural realm supports the built environment.

This exhibition is presented by the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance and the Fort Tryon Park Trust.

New York City-based artist Ruth Hofheimer has installed Birds of Paradise, a 500-foot-long mural at the gateway to Bayswater Park as part of an initiative to study, restore, and reinvigorate the park. Guided by the artist, neighborhood volunteers helped paint the mural using a simple paint-by-numbers process. Inspired by the wildlife in Bayswater Park and the larger ecosystem of Jamaica Bay, Hofheimer’s mural reflects the landscape, plants, and animals that live along the city's coastline. Images of herons, osprey, striped bass, Spanish mackerel, and marshy grasslands are incorporated into the public artwork. Birds, particularly herons, are the focus of Hofheimer’s design because of Jamaica Bay's famed reputation as a "birder’s paradise."

This exhibition is presented by the Natural Areas Conservancy and the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy

Daniele Frazier’s exhibition The Giant Flowers consists of five giant flowers made of rip-stop nylon fabric that will inflate and move hypnotically in the wind. Each twelve-foot-long brightly colored flower will be a unique design and will tower above the park twenty feet off the ground. Not only will these joyous flowers be an unexpected sight to behold, but they will provide park-goers a real-life illustration of the changing weather conditions.

Consisting of a grid of interconnected picnic tables with tiled mosaic surfaces, Common Ground is an interactive sculpture that literally brings people closer together. The shared tabletops and benches each have a different mosaic design inspired by the neighborhood’s unique mix of cultures, as well as by the patterns within the adjacent King Manor Museum. Common Ground is a celebration of harmony through diversity, imbued with the ideals of the park’s namesake, Rufus King.

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

Inspired by the luminaires of the 1964/65 World’s Fair, a series of illuminated sculptures guides parkgoers with graphic images that symbolize a specific place or potential experience within the park. Mobile Print Power facilitated two multilingual drawing and silkscreen printmaking sessions to create the images for the luminaires. The project builds on wayfinding suggestions that came out of The World’s Park, a project of the Design Trust for Public Space in partnership with the Queens Museum and NYC Parks.

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

See all locations for this project

The Unisphere was created for the 1964 World’s Fair as an aspirational image of global unity at the height of the Cold War. It has become a proud icon for Queens, now one of the world’s most ethnically diverse urban areas. During our own period of increasing nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment, Ai draws renewed attention to its symbolism. His 1,000-foot-long Circle Fence uses a series of metal frames with interconnected netting to surround the site, creating a global border that can be seen as both playful and sobering.

This work is part of the citywide exhibition Good Fences Make Good Neighbors. Ai Weiwei conceived this multi-site, multi-media exhibition for public spaces, monuments, buildings, transportation sites, and advertising platforms throughout New York City. Collectively, these elements comprise a passionate response to the global migration crisis and a reflection on the profound social and political impulse to divide people from each other. Visitors will discover that Ai’s “good fences” are not impenetrable barriers but powerful, immersive, and resonant additions to the fabric of the city.

This exhibition is presented by Public Art Fund.

These ceramic tiles were created through a series of children’s art workshops at Sunnyside Community Services at Woodside Housing. Inspired by the artwork of Romare Bearden, Red Grooms, Faith Ringgold, children carved city scenes into ceramic tiles while flank the iron columns at the entrances to Rainey Park.

This exhibition is presented by The Friends of Astoria Heights Park with support from Sunnyside Community Center at Woodside Houses.

With their park is under renovation, Friends of Astoria Heights Park (FoAHP) continues to look for ways to keep families engaged with each other and their park. They have held an annual book swap within the park to share their love of literacy and to support families who may not have a personal library at home. FoAHP would like to extend this idea to the installation of a Little Library on park property so local residents can continue to spread the joy of books.

This exhibition is presented by the Friends of Astoria Heights Park and Connection Church.

Jennifer Cecere’s artwork aims to integrate a feeling of domestic handiwork into the built environment. Doilies were invented by industrious women to hide and protect worn and frayed furnishings (maybe feelings too). Through the variety of materials that they can be made from, the ways in which they can be displayed, and their references to a variety of subject matter makes doilies very diverse. This double–sided, doily–shaped bench enlivens this small park in the midst of a busy thoroughfare and new construction by taking something intimate and domestic and placing it outdoors. The handicraft of the bench demonstrates a familiarity with domestic materials that ties us with our fragile environment and revives traditions that when integrated with art and architecture reflect our hopes and dreams.