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Accessibility2025 Arsenal Gallery Exhibits
Exhibits by Year:
The Arsenal Gallery is located at 64th Street and Fifth Avenue inside Central Park, Third Floor of the Arsenal Building. Gallery hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. (Closed municipal holidays.) Admission is free. For further information please call (212) 360-8163.
Know Before You Go
Groups of five or more people can call (212) 360-8114 or email artandantiquities@parks.nyc.gov to pre-register.
The gallery will be closed Thursday, September 18, Monday, October 13, and Tuesday, November 4. The Arsenal Gallery will be open on September 26th, from 9am - 12:30pm.
CALL TO ARTISTS AND ARTISANS
NYC Parks’ 43rd Annual
Wreath Interpretations Exhibition
This juried exhibition features creative variations on the traditional holiday decoration in all varieties of materials and subjects. Artists are invited to commemorate the holiday season by handcrafting a whimsical wreath using inventive, unexpected objects. To submit your wreath for consideration, please send a proposal according to the guidelines below. Due to space constraints not all applications can be selected. Entrants will be notified no later than Monday, Nov. 3 about wreath selections. Send your entry soon!
Image: Suzie Sims-Fletcher, ALL SET FOR THE HOLIDAYS, 2024, Plastic and foam rollers, pins, clips, foil, net, combs, wire wreath base, chenille stems, hot glue, iridescent glitter
Submission Deadline
No later than Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025
Late submissions will not be considered.
Drop-off Date
Monday, Nov. 24, 2025
Opening Reception
Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025
6 p.m.–8 p.m.
Please join us for light snacks and drinks!
Exhibition Dates
Dec. 5, 2025–Jan. 2, 2026
Pick-up Date
Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026
Rules
Wreaths exhibited in or proposed for past Arsenal Gallery shows will not be considered. Wreaths will be hung from gallery molding, not mounted on the wall, so please incorporate loops (above the midpoint of your wreath) in your design. Wreaths must be engineered so that they hang properly against the wall.
To apply, please fill out this online form OR submit the following information by U.S. mail or e-mail artandantiquities@parks.nyc.gov:
- Sketch or photograph of your design (wreath does not need to be complete)
- Brief written description, including dimensions and media/materials
- Name, phone number, and email address
Submitted materials will not be returned.
NYC Parks Arsenal Gallery
The Arsenal, Central Park 830 Fifth Ave., Room 20 New York, N.Y. 10065
(212) 360-8143
Current Exhibit
Vital Parks for All: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
On-View: September 11, 2025 - November 7, 2025
Opening Reception:
September 10, 2025, 6:00- 8:00 p.m.
New York City's parks are vital. In an era of unprecedented challenges ranging from extreme weather, sudden storms, physical and mental health crises, and increased park use, our park system needs to be prepared now more than ever to meet the city's demands—not only today, but tomorrow as well. Vital Parks for All: Investing in NYC's Living Infrastructure is a framework for equitably strengthening the health, communities, and environment through our parks system and empowering New Yorkers with data to advocate for their neighborhood's green spaces effectively.
From modular bridges and bathrooms to floating pools and oyster castles, Parks' solutions for today's problems are informed by a long history of serving the public. Vital Parks for All: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow offers audiences a broad view of the agency's ongoing efforts. The show highlights connections between past, present, and future with a selection of rarely seen photos from the Parks archive, coupled with contemporary imagery, text, and data generated from the Vital Parks explorer tool. Viewers will leave the exhibition with a comprehensive understanding of how NYC Parks measures, invests, and allocates vital resources across the city.
Past Exhibits
June 12, 2025 - August 22, 2025
Queer in Nature
NYC Parks is proud to present Queer in Nature, a group exhibition of works by fifteen artists highlighting the abundance of queerness in our everyday urban and natural environments. Working in various mediums and scales, the featured artworks collectively emphasize that cohesion and unity can be found in complexity and diversity. From oil painting to mycelium moss, the broad array of mediums in this exhibition connects the queer experience in all its diversity to the fluidity of the natural world.
March 27, 2025 – May 30, 2025
The New Yorker Covers Parks: A Centennial Celebration
From beaches to benches, Central Park to Coney Island, and even the pomp and circumstance of a single street tree planting, this exhibition showcases 100 years of New Yorker covers illustrating the vital role parks play in the rhythm of city life.
This exhibition is organized by NYC Parks Art & Antiquities.
Image Credit: ”Last Stop”, by Eric Drooker. First published as the cover of the New Yorker, August 5, 2002.
January 24, 2025 – March 14, 2025
Christopher Spinelli: Brooklyn Dreamland, Land without Shadows
NYC Parks is pleased to present Brooklyn Dreamland, Land without Shadows, an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Christopher Spinelli depicting a bygone era of Coney Island on view at the Arsenal Gallery.
In the late 1980s, Spinelli was encouraged by illustrator Robert Weaver to get out of the studio and explore real life. Childhood trips piled in his father's car in search of crinkle-cut fries led him to the B train, where he rode to the end of the line. "I began talking to the denizens of Coney Island, who were usually huddled in and around Nathan's for warmth; I drew them while they regaled me with their stories. Some of those first sketches are included in this exhibit." Inspired by buzzing neon signs and accumulated layers of peeling paint, Spinelli began producing the wonderfully garish acrylic works featured in this exhibition.
This exhibition is organized by NYC Parks Art & Antiquities.
Image Credit: Christopher Spinelli, This Way to the Spookarama, 2021, acrylic paint, 48” x 36”
December 5, 2024 – January 2, 2025
42nd Annual Wreath Interpretations
Wreath Interpretations returns for its 42nd year with over 30 novel wreaths guaranteed to spark your holiday spirit.
NYC Parks celebrates its time-honored tradition, though there's nothing traditional about these wreaths. Wreaths are selected for their unconventional interpretations of the classic holiday symbol and use of often unusual materials. With themes from native botany to the postmodern period, featured wreaths are created by individuals from all walks of life and depict a wide range of subject matter. Visitors will see wreaths made of alarm clocks, faux fireworks, confetti, money, paper bags, and much more.
This exhibition is organized by NYC Parks Art & Antiquities.
Image: Frazier Moore, Beginning to Look a Lot Postmodern, 2024
September 13, 2024 – November 12, 2024
ALTER ECO
Featured Artists: Edrex Fontanilla, Emma Gasterland Gustafsson, Evgenia Emets, Julia Oldham, and Sarah Wright
NYC Parks is pleased to present the group exhibition ALTER ECO, featuring artists evoking alternate environmental realities, using innovative approaches and materials to encourage environmental stewardship.Wielding technology, scientific research, and invention, these artists tackle one of the great issues facing climate activists: inspiring care beyond one's own lifetime. Works in this exhibition help facilitate an alternate experience of our environment, allowing for deeper connection across space and time.
This exhibition is organized by NYC Parks Art & Antiquities.
Image: Julia Oldham, Dendrostalkers (video still), 2022
June 14, 2024 – August 22, 2024
Adrian Kondratowicz: TRASH project
TRASH project is an exhibition of collaged artworks by New York City-based artist Adrian Kondratowicz. This body of work highlights community volunteerism and features a common motif: hot pink, polka-dotted trash bags. Kondratowicz first produced these eye-catching garbage bags in 2008, as an art project drawing attention to the large amount of trash that accumulates on city streets. Over time, the project evolved from a social art project into a series of monthly park cleanups in Manhattan's St. Nicholas Park, an extension of the artist's studio, and other public spaces around the world. Since 2020, the ubiquitous pink bags have found their way into Kondratowicz's collaged paintings, often featured alongside portraits of volunteers that mark the project's return to its artistic origins.
Image: Adrian Kondratowicz, Untitled, 2024, plastic collage on panel
March 28, 2024 – May 30, 2024
One Leaf, One Community: Memories in Our Parks
One Leaf, One Community: Memories in Our Parks is a photographic exhibition highlighting the power of shared experience in community building. NYC Parks employees spend their workdays caring for the city’s green spaces, but our parks are also home to their most cherished personal experiences. Visitors will find snapshots of engagements and weddings, childhood memories, gatherings with friends and family, and other personal moments. The exhibit has been designed to expand as it progresses, and the public will be invited to join the NYC Parks family and add their own photographs during scheduled gallery events.
This exhibition is organized by NYC Parks Art & Antiquities and the Ebony, Emerald, Latino, Lotus, and Stonewall Societies.
January 25, 2024 – March 14, 2024
The Community Gardener Portrait Project: New York City
The Community Gardener Portrait Project: New York City, an exhibition of photographs and accompanying interview excerpts by Zachary Schulman. Over the past five years, Schulman has sat with 121 community gardeners in NYC. The exhibition features a selection of 34 portraits taken across all five boroughs and invites viewers to learn more about the creation and long-term stewardship of these green spaces.
The Community Gardener Portrait Project: New York City is presented by NYC Parks' Art & Antiquities division and GreenThumb.
Image: Zachary Schulman, Albe Arnob, 2023
December 1, 2023 – January 4, 2024
NYC Parks’ 41st Annual Wreath Interpretations Exhibition
A holiday tradition since 1982, NYC Parks welcomes the holiday season with Wreath Interpretations at the Arsenal Gallery. Now in its 41st year, this year's exhibition features more than 30 imaginative, whimsical wreaths handcrafted by Parks employees, artists, designers, and creative individuals of all ages. As in years past, the wreaths use unusual and unexpected materials to re-imagine the traditional holiday decoration. Visitors will see wreaths made of thumbtacks, dryer lint, a tire, steel scouring pads, plastic eyes, and candy wrappers.
Image: Audrey Zeidman, Insomniac Dream Lover, 2023, Plastic eyes and painted board
See more past exhibits
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