TOPIC

Public Art

Bed-Stuy In Memoriam

Kristian Sanford contemplates the subjects and gradual decay of memorial murals in Bed-Stuy and considers how time simultaneously erodes and enhances these very personal but highly public artworks.

Empire Drive-In: A Novel Perspective on Car Culture

Thomas Hirschhorn's Precious and Precarious Bronx

Writer Steven Thomson and photographer Cameron Blaylock respond to Thomas Hirschhorn's Gramsci Monument, a conceptual sculpture commemorating an Italian philosopher installed at a NYCHA complex in the Bronx.

Paths to Pier 42

Hester Street Collaborative's Anne Frederick and Dylan House discuss a temporary pop-up public space on the Lower East Side that creates an asset for the neighborhood while informing and building momentum for the design of a future permanent park.

Young New Yorkers: Restorative Justice Through Public Art

Architect Rachel Barnard describes her new public art program for adolescents in the criminal justice system and reflects on the potential legal, social, and urban significance of an art- and architecture-based approach to restorative justice.

Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts

St. George, Staten Island

In the last of a series of profiles of Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts around the five boroughs, Summer Brennan explores the existing cultural community in St. George, Staten Island, and plans to encourage and capitalize on it to create "a high visibility gateway for cultural activity in Staten Island."

Reconstructing Lady Liberty

In honor of the re-opening of the Statue of Liberty after eight months of repairs following Superstorm Sandy, Peter Lehrer, who managed the ambitious reconstruction of the iconic monument between 1984 and 1986, describes in detail this complex feat of historic preservation.

Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts

Hunts Point, Bronx

In our third of a series of profiles of Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts around the five boroughs, Joey de Jesus takes us on a tour of Hunts Point, Bronx, to explore how artists, activists, and educators have turned social and environmental challenges into opportunities.

Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts

Fort Greene, Brooklyn

In the second in a series of profiles of Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts, Mercedes Kraus looks at how a cultural community has flourished by leveraging its legacy of artistic production in the face of intensifying real estate pressure and outside influence and interest.

Eco-Visualization: Aesthetics for Sustainability

Juliet Helmke traces the origins and prospects of a genre of art that aims to educate and more effectively influence consumer behavior through the reinterpretation of ecological data.