Art in the Parks

Description:

Prominent, unexpected messages about climate change dot the New York City landscape, sparking curiosity and raising awareness. The exhibition consists of ten large, solar-powered highway signs with phrases that draw passers-by into the climate conversation. The signs will appear in parks across the city in a range of neighborhoods, including some of those most vulnerable to climate change, and will flash translations into several of the many languages of NYC.

This fall programming is made possible by a range of intense collaborations that appropriately represent the partnership and joint action needed to tackle climate change. Fifteen citywide partners will co-host a broad range of programming related to the exhibition and to moving forward together on the climate challenge. NYC Parks locations include Hunts Point Riverside Park and St. Mary’s Park, Bronx; Sunset Park, Brooklyn; St. Nicholas Park, Manhattan; Flushing Meadows Corona Park (starting Sept 10) and Rockaway Beach at Beach 94th Street, Queens. Visit climate-signals.org for the full list of locations.

This exhibition is presented by the Climate Museum.

Description:

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.

Description:
?In one of New York City’s most vibrant public art installations, 51 unique artist-designed pianos are placed in parks and public spaces throughout the city’s five boroughs, including 32 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 to permanent homes 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. 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.

Description:
Artists Sohhee Oh, Lovie Pignata, and Moses Ros have installed public artworks along the length of Concrete Plant Park. The Communal Bench by Sohhee Oh is an uncommonly long bench made out of painted concrete blocks with images of native plants from the Foodway—materials that unify the conflicting history of the site. Pignata installed three geometric designs created with large, painted concrete pavers. Bronx River Native references the borough’s original inhabitants, the Mohegan, as well as its current residents. Ros’ Paradise Trail uses a series colorful flags to guide the public between the entrances at Westchester Avenue and Bruckner Boulevard. The flag designs were created with input from the community and celebrate the river, the Foodway, and the community’s heritage.

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 the Bronx River Alliance, with the Department for Health and Mental Hygiene, the Fund for Public Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Description:

Lifelong Bronx resident Andre Trenier presents “Rep Your Flag”—an homage to the immigrant communities that give the Bronx its strength.  The 16 included flags were determined directly from community feedback: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Pan-African, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad and Tobago

This exhibition is presented by the ArtBridge.

Art in the Parks: Active Open Space is a partnership between NYC Parks and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in collaboration with the Fund for Public Health in NYC and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to activate park space with health-inspired art installations that promote physical activity and strengthen community connections. Funding for this project was made possible by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Description:

Cara Lynch explores the tension between high and low, and private and public space in I’m So Happy You’re Here. Its patterns reference traditional parquet flooring, typically found in homes of the wealthy as a symbol of status and importance. By recontextualizing these patterns in a public mural, the work challenges notions of value and accessibility, as well as destination and origin.

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

Description:
?Lady K Fever’s mural creates the impression of a lush pond in the middle of the playground spray shower. The formerly worn utility now hosts vibrant images of plant life, turtles, and a spritely seal.

This exhibition is presented by the Friends of Mosholu Parkland.

Description:
“River Rising/Sube el Rio: An Exposition of Science, Art and Technology” in Starlight Park consists of eight sculptures by 15 artists informed by the 1918 Bronx International Exposition of Science, Arts and Industries, which took place on this same site 100 years ago. This is the first major public art exhibition to be located in Starlight Park, a newly renovated park bound by the Bronx River and Sheridan Expressway.

Description:

As an artist born and raised in the Bronx during the ’70s and ‘80s, Bishop was heavily influenced by the emergence of the Hip Hop culture. He worked alongside artists from ArTech, a Bronx-based art studio that is supported by AHRC, a family governed organization committed to finding ways for people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities to build full lives. The artists incorporated their artworks alongside the words: PEACE, UNITY, HOPE and LOVE.

This project is part of NYC Parks GreenThumb’s Art in the Gardens - Shed Murals project, an initiative that provides local artists with the opportunity to collaborate with community gardens as a platform to create and display their art.

Description:

Inspired by the neighboring Bronx Supreme Courthouse, Sitting Together critiques the established proceedings of courtroom cases. The sculptures places the plaintiff and defendant within modified witness stands to encourage empathy and understanding, and redefine how we think of conflict resolution. Color and seating direction in each sculpture address the severity of the conflicts.

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