Public Art Fund

📢 ANNOUNCEMENT—We’re beyond excited to reveal our 2025 Exhibition Program featuring five artists whose works delve into themes of memory, transformation, and our connections to nature and community. 🌍🤝 Through their public art commissions, each artist will share a unique narrative: from shared journeys and family histories to expansive installations that invite us to rethink the landscapes and lives around us. Together, they explore our connections across time and space—prompting reflection, interaction, and a deeper sense of place. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eQW63QkT ✨"Carmen Winant: My Mother and Eye" Opening February 5, 2025 JCDecaux North America, Inc. Bus Shelters across New York City, Chicago, & Boston ✨"Torkwase Dyson: Akua" Opening May 6, 2025 Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation ✨"Thaddeus Mosley: Touching the Earth" Opening June 3, 2025 City Hall Park, Lower Manhattan ✨"Between Tides" featuring Moko Fukuyama, Ilana Harris-Babou, Las Hermanas Iglesias, Carlos H. Matos, Amalia Pica, SUPERFLEX STUDIO Opening June 28, 2025 Rockaway Beach, Queens ✨"Paul Anthony Smith" Opening July 9, 2025 JCDecaux North America, Inc. Bus Shelters in New York City, Chicago, & Boston ✨"Monira Al Qadiri" Opening September 3, 2025 Doris C. Freedman Plaza, in Central Park Conservancy

JUST ANNOUNCED: Starting May 6, 2025, "Torkwase Dyson: Akua" is set to open at Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park. This is the artist’s first major public installation in New York City. "Akua" is a large, open pavilion with an immersive multi-channel soundscape that expands Dyson’s ongoing investigations of shape, light, and scale. "Akua" explores new sonic encounters between bodies and environments. Using sound recordings, Dyson transforms a 20-foot-high steel-and-aluminum pavilion into what the artist envisions as a spatial drawing. Visitors are invited to enter the pavilion, where they can sit and experience recorded sound moving across eight speakers, including layered conversations from Black archives, nature field recordings, and electronic sounds. Torkwase Dyson describes herself as a painter working across multiple mediums to explore the continuity between ecology, infrastructure, and architecture. She frequently creates compositions of three “hypershapes”—a rectangular box, a triangle, and a trapezoid. Each form references a historical person who escaped confinement through a space of that shape. Dyson’s art practice engages with histories of Black migration, architecture, and environmental systems through large-scale outdoor commissions that explore architectural scale across diverse sites. Her repeating geometric language, comprising curves, triangles, and rectangles, is inspired by architectural spaces used for escape and transformation. With "Akua," Dyson prompts audiences to consider the space between words and silence, and what it can reveal. "Torkwase Dyson: Akua" is curated by Public Art Fund Senior Curator Melanie Kress with Assistant Curator Jenée-Daria Strand. "Akua" will be on view at Pier 1 Bridgeview Lawn in Brooklyn Bridge Park from May 6 through March 8, 2026. The exhibition can be explored anytime, anywhere, on the free Bloomberg Connects app. Learn more about the artist and exhibition: https://bit.ly/4iJI3BH 📷 : #TorkwaseDyson Photography by Suzie Howell Courtesy Pace Gallery

We are deeply saddened by the passing of Fred Eversley (1941-2025), a visionary artist whose exploration of materials, light, energy, and perception revealed new possibilities for sculpture. It was a privilege to work with Fred to present his first public art commission in New York, Parabolic Light (2023), at Doris C. Freedman Plaza, where his luminous cast resin form captivated and inspired so many. We will all miss Fred’s unique charisma—his wonderful smile, personal warmth, and indomitable spirit. His artistic legacy, shaped over six decades of innovation, will endure, bringing inspiration to us all long into the future. 🎆 - Images 1 and 2: Fred Eversley "Parabolic Light," 2023 Image credit: © Fred Eversley. David Kordansky Gallery Photo: Nicholas Knight, courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY Presented by Public Art Fund at Doris C. Freedman Plaza, New York City, Sep 7, 2023–Aug 25, 2024 Image 3: Opening Celebration for "Fred Eversley: Parabolic Light," presented by Public Art Fund at Doris C. Freedman Plaza, New York City, Sep 7, 2023–Aug 25, 2024 Liz Ligon, courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY

Public art is for everyone—so tell us what matters to you! Take our quick 10-15 min survey to help shape the future of free public art in NYC. 💡 Your insights make a difference, and as a thank-you, you’ll be entered to win a $100 Visa gift card + a Public Art Fund hat & tote! Get started: https://bit.ly/43ieClQ #PublicArt #YourVoiceMatters 📽️: SandenWolff

Every #InternationalWomensDay, we celebrate the trailblazing vision of our founder, Doris C. Freedman, and the women shaping public art today. Doris not only founded Public Art Fund but also served as NYC’s first Director of Cultural Affairs, led the Municipal Art Society, and championed Percent for Art legislation—laying the groundwork for a more vibrant, equitable city. Her legacy lives on through our work and the leadership of her daughter, Susan Freedman, ensuring that public art remains a space for innovation, inclusion, and dialogue. Today and every day, we honor the women artists, curators, and cultural workers driving creativity forward—because a future shaped by women is a future shaped by art. #PublicArtFund

“I’m really interested in telling stories out of order to promote feeling, a sense of place.” — Carmen Winant ✨ In this conversation with Melanie Kress, Winant unpacks the layered storytelling of "My Mother and Eye," presented on 300 JCDecaux bus shelters across three cities. By disrupting linear narratives, she invites us to experience history, memory, and community in a new way. Watch the clip to hear more! Explore the exhibition: https://lnkd.in/ewxEE5Jz 📽️: Sandenwolff #CarmenWinant #MyMotherAndEye

Happy Birthday to the incredible Sarah Sze! ✨ Her visionary work transforms everyday materials into immersive, thought-provoking experiences. In 2006, we partnered with her on "Corner Plot," an unforgettable exhibition that turned an ordinary city corner into a surreal architectural illusion at Doris C. Freedman Plaza. 🏙️ Learn more: https://bit.ly/CornerPlot 📷: Tom Powel Courtesy of the artist, Public Art Fund, and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York #PublicArtFund #SarahSze

#PAFpicoftheweek | Spotted: Carmen Winant’s "My Mother and Eye (Westbound)" —a powerful tribute to womanhood, motherhood, and the stories that connect generations. Even more impactful this Women’s History Month! Keep tagging us in your pics—we love seeing how you experience public art! 📷: @dananechmad

Want to make an impact on the future of free public art for all in NYC? Now’s the time! Your perspective on public art in New York City matters. That’s why we’re inviting you to take a survey that will help us learn more about you and what you value in public art experiences. The survey will take about 10-15 minutes to complete and everyone who participates will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win $100 Visa gift card and Public Art Fund hat and tote bag. To begin the survey, simply click here [https://bit.ly/43ieClQ]. Your responses will be completely anonymous and will only ever be shared in aggregate. 📸: Nicholas Knight Nina Chanel Abney "San Juan Heal," 2022 Commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in collaboration with The Studio Museum in Harlem and Public Art Fund

How do we see ourselves through the eyes of those who love us? ✨ Carmen Winant’s "My Mother and Eye" transforms city streets into a visual meditation on motherhood, care, and generational memory. Now on view on JCDecaux North America, Inc. bus shelters across New York City, Chicago, and Boston through April 6. Plan your visit: https://lnkd.in/ewxEE5Jz 📽️ : SandenWolff #PublicArtFund #CarmenWinant