Art in the Parks
Through collaborations with a diverse group of arts organizations and artists, Parks brings to the public both experimental and traditional art in many park locations. Please browse our list of current exhibits and our archives of past exhibits below. You can also see past grant opportunities or read more about the Art in the Parks Program.
Public Art Map and Guide
Find out which current exhibits are on display near you, and browse our permanent monument collection.
Search Current and Past Exhibits
2025
Brooklyn
Graciela Cassel, River Bay Flags
April 19, 2025 to June 21, 2025
Shore Road Park, Brooklyn
Shore Park and Parkway, Brooklyn
Map/Directions (in Google Maps)
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
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.
Various Artists, Black lives, Black history, Black joy, and Black futures
November 8, 2024 to June 20, 2025
Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn
Map/Directions (in Google Maps)
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
Organized by the Fort Greene Park Conservancy in partnership with a curatorial committee including leadership from the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA), The Lay Out, Photoville, and Weeksville Heritage Center, this exhibition features photographs that share the diverse narratives—past, present, and future—of the Black community living and working in and around Fort Greene, including many of the 12,000 residents of nearby public housing. The exhibition and related programming will feature the selected artists and community leaders in conversation to foster discussion on building belonging, dismantling structural racism, preserving living cultures, and making space for envisioning and imagining a brighter future.
Marcus Brown, American Gold: A Ship of Human Bondage
June 19, 2024 to June 18, 2025
North 5th Street Pier and Park, Brooklyn
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
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.
Bryce Peterson, Hanging Gardens of Brooklyn
June 8, 2024 to June 7, 2025
Herbert Von King Park, Brooklyn
Map/Directions (in Google Maps)
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
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.
Apex for Youth/Yukiko Izumi, Untitled
June 4, 2024 to June 4, 2025
Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Map/Directions (in Google Maps)
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
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.
Eric Orr and Welder Underground, Rappin' Max Robot
October 30, 2024 to April 30, 2025
Columbus Park, Brooklyn
Map/Directions (in Google Maps)
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
Rappin' Max Robot" stands as a tribute to the global journey of hip hop culture and its pivotal role in propelling breaking onto the world stage, culminating in its inclusion in this year's Olympics. Constructed in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the sculpture will make stops In New York City before making its permanent home in Paris. Inspired by Eric Orr's artwork, the sculpture is being constructed through an innovative apprenticeship program that teaches young people from the five boroughs to become certified welders. The new initiative called Welder Underground is a program, created by The Collab-Orators, a Brooklyn-based non-profit.
Various Artists, Global Photo Exhibition-PEACE FOR ALL
October 30, 2024 to January 5, 2025
John Jay Park
Cadman Plaza Park, Brooklyn
Map/Directions (in Google Maps)
Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.
Global Photo Exhibition-PEACE FOR ALL is a creative photography exhibition to tell a unique story. The exhibition features a curated collection of striking, joyful, profound photographs from Magnum photographers Cristina de Middel, Lindokuhle Sobekwa, and Olivia Arthur, who travelled to Vietnam, Ethiopia, and Romania to capture moments of PEACE FOR ALL-funded support activities from their own perspectives. The project is intended as a worldwide reflection on the value of peace. Global Photo Exhibition-PEACE FOR ALL will be held in over 10 major world cities, hosted in public locations over several weeks, and freely accessible to all. The global initiative was first launched in London in September with other participating cities to follow, including New York City.
Manhattan
PS 198 & PS 77, Color Pop Garden
June 28, 2025 to June 27, 2026
Samuel Seabury Playground, Manhattan
Map/Directions (in Google Maps)
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.
Michel Bassompierre, Fragile Giants
May 12, 2025 to May 11, 2026
Park Avenue Malls, Manhattan
Map/Directions (in Google Maps)
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.
Pelumi Adegawa, Gray Catbird
May 7, 2025 to May 6, 2026
Dia y Flores Community Garden, Manhattan
Map/Directions (in Google Maps)
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.