Art in the Parks

River Bay Flags symbolizes our unity as a community and commitment to nurturing the waters that sustain us, envisioning our interconnected waterways as a nation and highlighting the role of water in life. It promotes awareness and encourages collective responsibility to protect our natural resources to ensure a sustainable future.

This artwork is part of the Bay Ridge biennial Essential Shore/ Permeable Future, hosted by Stand4 Gallery. This exhibition presents free public artworks, interventions, and programs throughout the community to strengthen people’s relationship to water and the Narrows shoreline through an environmental lens.

American Gold: A Ship of Human Bondage is an Augmented Reality (AR) installation based on slave ships and enslaved people. The installation describes the captives as figures made of gold. American Gold aims to draw attention to the monetary value of captives and the inhumane treatment of African captives. American Gold makes the slave ship an almost invisible structure that floats above the viewer, giving the viewer a glimpse of how many people were squeezed into a slaving vessel from below. The installation is part of a larger series of art installations about slavery called Slavery Trails, placed at historical sites throughout the United States.

The Hanging Gardens of Brooklyn is a traveling art installation that serves as a creative commons for artistic expression, public well-being, and collective stewardship. The work features a trellised canopy of edible and native plants, as well as a solar-powered lighting and audio system to support public programming hosted within and around the artwork. Throughout the summer and fall until the end of October, The Hanging Gardens of Brooklyn will serve as a publicly accessible venue for the local community, hosting activations including performances, workshops, and wellness offerings. More information on related programming can be found here.

This site-specific mural by artist Yukiko Izumi was made in collaboration with volunteers of Apex for Youth, a non-profit organization serving low-income and immigrant Asian youth. The artists worked with the volunteers to identify their favorite things about the park which viewers will find depicted in this mural.

This exhibition is presented by Apex for Youth.

Designed and painted by the students, art teachers, and parents of PS 198 and PS 77, this mural features a colorful collection of flowers, leaves, and pollinators in a bright, bold whimsical style. This mural was made possible with the generous support of New York City Councilmember Julie Menin, Partnership for Parks, the Hellgate Hill Community Association, the PS 198 and PS 77 parent teacher associations, and the local community.

This exhibition features nine monumental, resin sculptures by French sculptor Michel Bassompierre, depicting peaceful animals who seem to be caught in the intimacy of their lives. Favouring animals with round shapes, Asian elephants, gorillas, bears or even horses, Bassompierre achieves a form that is both soft and precise, where light never clashes with shadow.

This exhibition is presented by Galeries Bartoux, Patrons of Park Avenue, and the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association.

This mural was created by Pelumi Adegawa and features the gray catbird and native sunflower, milkweed, lobelia, and wild strawberry. As part of the Audubon Mural Project, a public-art initiative drawing attention to birds that are vulnerable to extinction from climate change, NYC Parks GreenThumb partnered with National Audubon Society,  Gitler &_____ Gallery, and local artists to design murals on sheds at GreenThumb community gardens across New York City. Through a collaborative process between the partners, artist, and community garden group, each mural was designed to feature climate-threatened birds that rely on green spaces like these urban gardens and native plants that birds depend on for food and shelter.