Art in the Parks

Description:

In this current climate, BENCHMARKS provides NYC youth with a public platform to express themselves on current issues in a constructive, creative and powerful way to effect social change. This comprehensive, student arts residency program inspires young people to confront major social issues and become engaged citizens through creating large-scale, meaningful artworks on benches for public display citywide, to effect social change. The resulting 30 benches have been colorfully painted to share the students’ messages with parkgoers in all five boroughs. This program serves up to 750 New York City public school students in grades 5-9 in 30 schools in disadvantaged communities citywide.

Locations: The benches can be found in Mullaly Park in the Bronx, Prospect Park Parade Ground in Brooklyn, Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan, Hoyt Avenue Sitting Area in Queens, and North Shore Esplanade in Staten Island.

This exhibition is presented by the Center for Educational Innovation’s Arts Education Program.

Description:
LEAP’s Public Art Program uses a social justice framework to empower middle and high school students to have a voice in their communities and express themselves on social issues through the creation and public exhibition of art. This program instills social responsibility and civic engagement, imparts artistic skills, concepts and techniques, and fosters peer leadership, self-confidence and collaboration. As part of each residency, students have a unique opportunity to meet with world-renowned artists at their studios, as well as galleries, museums, exhibitions, and other sites. For this year’s public art exhibition, students from seven New York City public middle schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island have adorned wood panels and small sculptural seating elements with colorful painted murals that touch upon critical social issues in their community and across the globe.

The tables can be found in Joyce Kilmer Park and Tremont Park in the Bronx, Coffey Park and South Oxford Park in Brooklyn, Auburndale Park and Evergreen Park in Queens, and Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten Island.

This exhibition is presented by LEAP.

Description:
?The Sing for Hope Pianos places artist-designed pianos throughout NYC’s parks and public spaces for anyone and everyone to play. Each summer, the pianos bring individuals and communities together in an open festival of art for all. After their time on the streets, Sing for Hope transports the instruments to NYC public schools, where they become hubs for Sing for Hope’s ongoing creative programs and enrich students’ lives for years to come. This June, Sing for Hope will place its 500th 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. 

Description:

This mural is inspired by conversations with the garden’s founder about the history of the garden and plans for its future. On one side of the shed, silhouettes of a group of people clapping and celebrating, with reflections of the garden painted within the group’s outline. Other images incorporated into the design include a pumpkin patch, a flower bed, the garden’s pathway, an early morning scene, native butterflies, oversized flowers, and an array of green leaves and foliage.

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:

Vincent Parisot is a Greece based artist who has exhibited worldwide. One of the works that has resulted from their home and its flora is Athanatos-for ever, a veritable wall painting. It represents an “agave americana,” which in Greece is called “Athanatos,” or “without end,” an allusion to its longevity. Often, there are hearts on its leaves, along with names of young couples who hope that the plant’s longevity will be transmitted to their 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:

The Boogie Down (Youth) Booth is colorful public installation that brings Bronx music, solar-powered lights, seating, and community art to an underutilized space at Keltch Park on 170th Street and Jerome Avenue in the Highbridge/Concourse area of the South Bronx.

it follows three previous booths, installed between 2014 and 2016 at different sites in Crotona Park East and Melrose. Designed by Chat Travieso, this newest booth was informed by the “Yes Loitering” Project, a public space and safety youth initiative that sought to investigate how teens might be excluded from or targeted in public spaces, and developed ideas on how to create more youth-powered spaces. The research project was led by Travieso and a team of Bronx teens from the area. The group of young researchers met with community members, merchants, and other key stakeholders to gather valuable input regarding neighborhood needs.

Like all previous booths, the Boogie Down (Youth) Booth pays tribute to the rich culture of the Bronx, as expressed through music. It incorporates solar-powered speakers that stream music continuously, featuring a playlist curated by Elena Martinez and Bobby Sanabria of WHEDco’s Bronx Music Heritage Center, showcasing the sounds of the borough, including salsa, jazz, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, hip-hop, Garifuna, and blues.

This exhibition is presented by WHEDco

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.