Art in the Parks

Mayor Bill de Blasio launched the City Cleanup Corps (CCC), a New Deal-inspired economic recovery program to directly create 10,000 jobs and make New York City the cleanest, greenest city in the United States. Beautify NYC is an initiative of the CCC that has partnered with NeOn Arts to offer young people on probation employment and skills training through the arts. This project empowers local stakeholder groups like NYC Salt to choose art projects for their communities—projects that engage young people and neighbors in strengths-based activities supporting educational outcomes and connecting to employment opportunities.

This exhibition includes examples of student work. All photos will be taken in the South Bronx and will celebrate the people and culture of the neighborhood.

Having recently moved to Brooklyn, artist Dan Petersen was inspired to create a mural design that would convey the fun, colorful, and dynamic atmosphere that he immediately found myself immersed in. This vibe was validated over and over again during the process of painting the mural as so many enthusiastic passersby exclaimed compliments and nice words of encouragement – from cars, bikes, skateboards, and on foot.

Designed by Elisabeth Condon with artists Angel Garcia, Karl Kelly, Paulapart, Kiana Vega, Estefania Velez-Rodriguez and Price White, Lattice Views spreads over the extended on either side of the handball courts in lower Highland Park. Within the lattice pattern, harmonious tones of green that relate to the park conjoin with community garden foliage, wide stairs that lead through the park, as well as people, lamps, and bicycles from the park. The lattice acknowledges the trees above the extended walls by pulling them down into the design, creating visual continuity between nature and the handball court and ground.

This exhibition is presented by Norte Maar for Collaborative Projects in the Arts.

The youth photographers who contributed their work to this exhibition were a part of a program organized by the Red Hook Community Justice Center in partnership with the Red Hook Recreation Center. Students learned about photography basics and techniques and how to document their lives, interests, and the world around them. The students re-learned how to take a deep breath in and appreciate the world around us. 

This exhibition is presented by the Red Hook Community Justice Center, Red Hook Recreation Center, and Photoville.

A sonic sculpture inspired by and dedicated to the art, life, and legacy of this Brooklyn Hip Hop legend, the form and structure of Sky’s the Limit in the County of Kings challenges the traditions of western public sculpture by representing his African American artistry, lineage, and evolution as the “King of New York.” The crowned bust is traditionally sculpted, sitting atop an angular steel frame and supported by panels that highlight Wallace’s achievements and contemporaries. It invites the viewer to experience the larger-than-life artistry of B.I.G.’s contributions to and love of Brooklyn, hip-hop culture and community.

This exhibition is made possible by a grant from the Downtown Brooklyn + Dumbo Art Fund, led by Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Dumbo Improvement District as part of New York State’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative.

The use of ornamental gates and fences serves as a metaphor for security and gated communities, insecurity, the incarceration of Black men, the detainment of illegal immigrants, policing, and William Blake’s concept of “Mind Forg’d Manacles” — self-created barriers to personal and societal growth and freedom, built by fear, division and perceptions of difference. These gates, whether they are to keep others out or keep someone in, act as reflections on the separation of people, both physically and psychologically. Mind Forged Manacles/Manacle Forged Minds, while not strictly site-specific, creates, connects and amplifies a conversation about the sculpture and the monuments and buildings around it that currently reside in Columbus Park. The viewer is encouraged to be “site conscious” when looking at the work and its location, exploring issues of justice, freedom, slavery and mass incarceration.

This exhibition is presented by More Art and is made possible by a grant from the Downtown Brooklyn + Dumbo Art Fund, led by Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Dumbo Improvement District as part of New York State’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Community Heroes aims to bring together residents in the neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Farragut, and celebrate those who empower and nourish these neighborhoods. Individuals were selected as representatives of the community, or heroes, from a pool of nominations collected during a community outreach process. Community Heroes seeks to tell the stories of the neighborhoods’ unsung heroes through the collaboration of newer residents and long-time residents, often people of color whose families have lived in the community for generations. Community Heroes continues to collect nominations for heroes and seeks photographers to take their portraits.

Community Heroes aims to bring together residents in the neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Farragut, and celebrate those who empower and nourish these neighborhoods. Individuals were selected as representatives of the community, or heroes, from a pool of nominations collected during a community outreach process. Community Heroes seeks to tell the stories of the neighborhoods’ unsung heroes through the collaboration of newer residents and long-time residents, often people of color whose families have lived in the community for generations. Community Heroes continues to collect nominations for heroes and seeks photographers to take their portraits.

Raised_The Floating Playground in an assemblage between handmade rafts and playground toys. Inspired by the park’s position overlooking New York Bay, the sculpture reflects on migration by sea and humankind's inherent nomadic condition. Eirini Linardaki draws inspiration from her childhood playtime, creating vessels from household objects, referring to family displacement at a crossroad between ephemeral construction and a life-altering journey.

The project was created under the auspices of the Hellenic Republic, Ministry of Culture and Sports, The Red Sand Project, and SHIM Art Network.