Thomas Jefferson Park

NYC PARKS JOINS UNIQLO FOR NEW PUBLIC ART CELEBRATION

Second-year recipients of Art in the Parks: UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant creates 10 original pieces for parks citywide

NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FACIP, yesterday joined UNIQLO and the recipients of the Art in the Parks: UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant to celebrate the second year of public art installations chosen for 10 parks citywide. The event was held in UNIQLO’s 5th Avenue flagship store where first-year grant recipients Patricia Cazorla and Nancy Saleme have installed their piece “Flying High for Equality” after a year on display in Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx. The second round of artworks will be installed in parks over the next two weeks.

“Parks’ partnership with UNIQLO has expanded our public art offerings across the five boroughs, and we are excited for another year of amazing new artworks by local artists,” said Commissioner Silver. “Public art should be accessible to all, and Parks is proud to do our part in offering high quality arts and cultural programming in our shared public spaces across the city.”

”As a brand that creates clothing made for all, we continue to be proud to partner with an organization that shares a similar philosophy through public parks,” said Hiroshi Taki, UNIQLO USA. “For a second year, we have enjoyed working with the talented recipients of the UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant as they bring their visions to life in parks across the city, and look forward to visiting the new installations this summer.”

Introduced in September 2016, the Art in the Parks: UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant builds on Parks’ equity initiatives by bringing regular public art exhibits to parks that have historically lacked cultural programming. The $200,000 grant has been issued to a total of 20 artists over the course of two consecutive years, with $100,000 distributed to 10 artists in 2017, and $100,000 issued to another 10 artists this year. Each chosen artist receives $10,000 to execute their pieces. The first round of winning artists installed their pieces in June 2017, and each was on display for one year

Additional events will be held in the coming weeks to celebrate the installations at the 10 chosen sites:

Bronx
• Joyce Kilmer Park: Dionisio Cortes Ortega, “Sitting Together”
• Virginia Park: Cara Lynch, “I’m So Happy You’re Here”
Brooklyn
• Fort Greene Park: Tanda Francis, “Adorn Me”
• Herbert Von King Park: Roberto Visani, “(x)ofmanychildren”
Manhattan
• Seward Park: Karla & James Murray, “Mom-and-Pops of the L.E.S.”
• Thomas Jefferson Park: Harumi Ori, “I am Here @ Thomas Jefferson Park, 113 Street and 1st Ave, Manhattan, NY”
Queens
• Flushing Meadow Corona Park: Zaq Landsberg, “Islands of the Unisphere”
• Rufus King Park: Rose DeSiano, “Absent Monuments”
Staten Island
• Faber Park: Jackie Mock, “The Pencil Museum”
• Tappen Park: Adam Frezza & Terri Chiao, “Stick Stump & The Lawn Lumps”
For renderings, artist bios and project descriptions, visit our website.

Grant recipients were selected through an open application process and chosen by a committee of arts professionals and community members from the five boroughs, as well as NYC Parks and UNIQLO USA representatives. Proposals were judged according to artistic and creative merit, response to the surrounding community, and suitability to the site. Priority was given to proposals that responded directly to the park and its neighborhood.

A partnership with NYC Parks and New York City artists is a natural extension of the UNIQLO tradition of contributing to local communities and celebrating artists and self-expression. Since opening its first global flagship store in SoHo 10 years ago, the company has embraced neighborhoods and local communities as showplaces for creativity.

Art in the Parks
In 2017 NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program celebrated 50 years of bringing contemporary public artworks to the city’s parks, making New York City one of the world’s largest open-air galleries. The agency has consistently fostered the creation and installation of temporary public art in parks throughout the five boroughs. Since 1967, NYC Parks has collaborated with arts organizations and artists to produce over 2,000 public artworks by 1,300 notable and emerging artists in over 200 parks. For more information about the program visit www.nyc.gov/parks/art.

About UNIQLO and Fast Retailing
UNIQLO is a brand of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., a leading global Japanese retail holding company that designs, manufactures and sells clothing under seven main brands: Comptoir des Cotonniers, GU, Helmut Lang, J Brand, Princesse tam.tam, Theory, and UNIQLO. With global sales of approximately 1.8619 trillion yen for the 2017 fiscal year ending August 31, 2017 (US $16.87 billion, calculated in yen using the end of August 2017 rate of $1 = 110.4 yen), Fast Retailing is one of the world’s largest apparel retail companies, and UNIQLO is Japan’s leading specialty retailer.

UNIQLO continues to open large-scale stores in some of the world's most important cities and locations, as part of its ongoing efforts to solidify its status as a truly global brand. Today the company has more than 2,000 stores in 19 markets worldwide including Japan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, U.K. and the U.S. In addition, Grameen UNIQLO, a social business established in Bangladesh in September 2010, currently operates several Grameen UNIQLO stores in Dhaka. UNIQLO manages an integrated business model under which it designs, manufactures, markets and sells high-quality, casual apparel. The company believes that truly great clothes should be supremely comfortable, feature universal designs, are of high quality and offer a superb fit to everyone who wears them.

With a corporate statement committed to changing clothes, changing conventional wisdom and change the world, Fast Retailing is dedicated to creating great clothing with new and unique value to enrich the lives of people everywhere. For more information about UNIQLO and Fast Retailing, please visit www.uniqlo.com and www.fastretailing.com.

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