Art in the Parks

The landmark status of Lewis H. Latimer House and Museum serves as inspiration for the Beacon Sails. The artwork affirms the Museum’s sense of place and belonging within the Flushing and greater Queens community and honors the groundbreaking lifework of humanitarian, Lewis H. Latimer. The outdoor installation features two triangular-shaped shade sails which function as a focal point to attract the local public and serve as a locator for visitors. The patterned designs featured on each canopy draw inspiration from Latimer’s mechanical drawings and patents, specifically the 1882 patent for processing carbon filament. Also embedded into the designs are scientific symbols for light and energy. The patterned designs pay tribute to Lewis H. Latimer’s vision for bridging art and science to improve the conditions of society and our overall quality of life.

This exhibition is presented by the Lewis H. Latimer House Museum, made possible in part by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

The mural is presented by the Long Island City Partnership, Jacob Riis Neighborhood Settlement at Queensbridge Houses, and Creative Art Works. 

This exhibition is presented by Socrates Sculpture Park .

what was & what is speaks the language of urban development while prompting opportunity for reflection on the fastest-growing neighborhood in New York City. what was & what is is an 8-foot-tall rectangular perimeter, a nearly empty room of about 180 square feet. The site positions the work at the feet of brand new residential buildings. Like its neighbors, Keegan’s work is constructed mostly in transparent panes, a model home approaching 1:1 scale. Its interior floor shows an enlarged dollhouse view of an empty one-bedroom rental apartment in the Hayden, a building across Jackson Avenue.

On three sides, the phrase “For a long time this neighborhood was about what will be, and now I think it’s about what is.” traces the upper edges of the sculpture. The quotation is pulled from a developer’s comment in a 2017 New York Times article titled “Long Island City Grows Ever Skyward.” Expressing the apotheosis of longtime speculative interest in Long Island City, it takes stock of the present with a puzzling formulation of self-reflection. If Long Island City is now “about what is,” then what is it about? Has “what will be” turned out to be “what is”? What was the present like when it was ostensibly about the future? The phrase begs the question of whose timeline and whose sense of anticipation guides narratives of a neighborhood’s arrival. To this end, the sculpture’s back wall is made of mirrored glass, a surface capturing a constant stream of traffic and passersby inside.

This exhibition is presented by SculptureCenter.

RPGA Studio, Inc. uses art as a tool to promote healthy lifestyles and engage the surrounding community of Captain Tilly Park. RPGA worked with parkgoers, including students from Ideal Montessori School and MS 358, to design this multi-component, parkwide exhibition. In addition flowers and umbrellas along the park’s entryway on Highland Avenue, visitors will find creative signage that encourages positive park usage and maintenance, as well as local flora and fauna. When surveyed what would encourage more people to visit the park, children frequently requested a dog—RPGA happily obliged placing a sculpture of Peppermint the pup on the park’s south end to greet people. The work is in 12 pieces and takes the viewer a little while to locate the perfect spot to view the piece. It draws additional inspiration from an eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa that artist Yvonne Shortt suffers from.

Art in the Parks: Active Open Space is a partnership between the 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. 

Hospicio Cabañas (Playable Stage for Thunder Hawk) by Karl Orozco is an interpretation of the oldest hospital complex and orphanage in the Americas located in Guadalajara, Mexico. Hospicio Cabans was a playable stage in the arcade hit Super Street Fighter II and served as home court for Thunder Hawk, the first Mexican video game character. Using colorful dried corn kernels, Orozco will create a pixelated mosaic of Thunder Hawk’s stage on a large column at the entrance on 111^th Street. He will inject the character’s backstory with greater historical and cultural relevance that is lost in the video game’s culturally insensitive depiction. Instead, Orozco will draw inspiration from Danza de la Pluma (a traditional dance originating in Oaxaca, Mexico that reinterprets the Spanish conquest of the Zapotec people) and today’s elote vendors along the park. 

This exhibition is made possible by the Art in the Parks: Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park Grant, which supports the creation of site-specific public artworks by Queens-based artists for two sites within Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

This project is part of Queens Council on the Arts' public art program titled, ArtSite, supported by the Queens Council on the Arts with funds from NYS Regional Economic Development Council in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts, with additional support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

For Steinway Cypher, Baldwin merged contributions of the Steinway family with elements of present-day Astoria to create a piece that reflects the visual landscape of the neighborhood. In 1870 William Steinway began building a company town, Steinway Village in what is now known as Astoria. The Steinway Piano Factory was built on this land accompanied by employee housing, a church, a library, a kindergarten, and a public trolley line. Steinway also founded the resort town North Beach and spearheaded a project to extend his town’s trolley lines under the East River, which led to the creation of the current subway tunnel

A large, white piano-like shape positioned in the middle of the mural commemorates the industry titan. Aquatic and seashell forms are a nod to North Beach and the East River. Arrows highlight the progressive nature of Steinway’s ideas. Some of Baldwin’s other shapes are a response to the mosaics seen on Mombar, a restaurant in Astoria’s Little Egypt. Additional elements of commerce are sprinkled throughout to honor local businesses that find their home on Steinway Street.

Zaq Landsberg recreated several of the famed Unisphere’s islands from various continents at scale and placed them together to form a global archipelago. The collection of islands act as seating, stages, and meeting places, and reflects the diversity Queens. These continents, figuratively stitched together, are recognizable by their shapes, but will have neither labels nor borders.

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