May 16, 2012
Bright orange gates in Central Park, improbable waterfalls on the East River, Tom Otterness' mischievous bronze figures on the 14th Street A, C, E subway platform—these public art works are a reason to visit New York for some, and welcomed flourishes to an everyday route for others. To either audience, public art encourages new ideas, conversation and change the way a city is perceived.
Below are installations both temporary and permanent, and organizations that sponsor public art.
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BrooklynSat, Nov 5, 2011 – Sun, Oct 7, 2012
Borrowing its title from the proverb, "a promise is a cloud, fulfillment is rain," this outdoor exhibition explores the notion of potentiality in art. In both their static and evolving states, these works incorporate a capacity for transformation—either in their form, process, or visual language. More -
African Burial Ground Memorial
African Burial Ground National Monument
ManhattanOngoing
The memorial honors the estimated 15,000 enslaved and free Africans who were interred here during the 17th and 18th centuries. Visitors to the monument learn about the harsh living conditions under which African-Americans toiled, the customs they added to our culture and the many contributions they made to colonial America. More -
Art in the Windows - "Shredded: off the Grid" by Pauline Galiana
ManhattanThurs, May 3, 2012 – Fri, June 1, 2012
With the precision of a forensic scientist and the patience of a librarian, Pauline Galiana collects paper strips from discarded or shredded documents and re-stitches them into their own narrative. For this exhibition, Galiana solely uses The New York Public Library’s "NOW" publication. More -
Art Students League: Model to Monument
Art Students League of New York
ManhattanFri, June 24, 2011 – Thurs, May 31, 2012
The Art Students League of New York presents the Model to Monument Program (M2M), a collaboration with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation that has culminated in the installation of seven sculptures along Riverside South. More -
Civic Action: A Vision for Long Island City
QueensSun, May 13, 2012 – Sun, Aug 5, 2012
Teams of artists, architects, urban planners, writers, historians and other consultants create alternative visions for the northern industrial stretch of Long Island City in response to increasing residential development, rezoning and ecological threats. More -
ManhattanThurs, May 24, 2012 – Fri, Nov 30, 2012
"Common Ground" responds to the many layers of City Hall Park's rich historical context and reveals how a work of art that articulates an artist’s personal vision might also be thought of as having a civic function, value, or engagement. More -
John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres: South Bronx Projects
BronxOngoing
John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres began collaborating in the early 1980s and many of their castings have become a part of the landscape in two South Bronx neighborhoods. Several decades later, the murals are still there, you just have to look up. More -
ManhattanOngoing
Sculptor Mark di Suvero's 70-foot-high Joie de Vivre (Joy of Life) resides in Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. More -
Mask (Model to Monument) in Van Cortlandt Park
Art Students League of New York
BronxTues, June 28, 2011 – Sun, May 27, 2012
The sculpture was created by an international team of seven League students led by master sculptor Greg Wyatt. The decision to sculpt a theatrical mask grew out the artists’ visits to the park, where the Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy is introducing public theater events. More -
BronxPlease check full listing for event date and times
"Branch Dances" are slow and meditative, yet powerfully communicative performances. Soto works with her team of five dancers and a percussionist to connect body, mind, place and elements to stillness among Wave Hill’s brilliant foliage, sweeping vistas and sculptural trees. More -
Michael Sailstorfer's "Tornado"
ManhattanTues, Sept 20, 2011 – Mon, May 28, 2012
Like a tornado, which is violently powerful but also literally made of air, Sailstorfer's towering site-responsive sculpture provides a visceral experience of form and materials in tension, massive but also vulnerable. More -
ManhattanWed, June 20, 2012 – Sun, Aug 26, 2012
In her new work, "How I Roll," a twin-engine plane, supported by vertical steel posts at the wing tips, rotates in the center of Doris C. Freedman Plaza. This subversion of the expected—the juxtaposition of a busy Midtown Manhattan plaza with a Piper Seneca slowly rotating on its own axis—is central to Pivi’s practice. More -
ManhattanOngoing
The Pieces for Peace Mosaic stretches 213 feet (65 meters) and incorporates works of art submitted by youth from all over the globe. More -
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Sarah Sze: Still Life with Landscape
ManhattanWed, June 8, 2011 – Fri, June 8, 2012
Sarah Sze created an elaborate metropolis of perspectival architectural models that is bisected by the High Line itself. The sculpture forms an open archway that frames the views to the north and south, as well as allows visitors to physically enter and pass through the space it outlines. More -
Spencer Finch, The River That Flows Both Ways
ManhattanOngoing
The artist transforms a semi-enclosed loading dock's existing casement windows with 700 individually crafted panes of glass representing the water conditions on the Hudson River over a single day. More -
Valerie Hegarty, Autumn on the Hudson Valley with Branches
ManhattanOngoing
This artwork poses as an artifact of art history gone awry, resembling a Hudson River School landscape painting that has been left outdoors, exposed to the elements. More -
Manhattan
Since 1974, Creative Time has presented the most innovative art in the public realm. It has worked with over 2,000 artists to produce more than 335 groundbreaking public art projects that have ignited the public's imagination, explored ideas that shape society, and engaged millions of people around the globe. More -
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Manhattan
Since 1977, this organization has presented more than 500 emerging and established artists’ projects throughout New York City. By bringing artworks outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, it provides a unique platform for an unparalleled public encounter with the art of our time. More -
Battery Park City Parks Conservancy
ManhattanOngoing
Public art is installed throughout Battery Park City Parks, including works by Tom Otterness, Jim Dine and Louise Bourgeois. More -
Queens
Socrates Sculpture Park is the principal outdoor site for contemporary sculpture in New York City. Set on a small cove off the East River, the 4.5-acre park consists of a large open space encircled by rock gardens, specially built walls, walkways and areas of wild grasses and boulders lining the waterfront. The sculpture has the dramatic Manhattan skyline as a backdrop. More
Isamu Noguchi's sculpture was installed in Lower Manhattan in 1968. The diagonal lines of red painted steel stand in contrast to the stark horizontal and vertical lines of the adjacent Marine Midland Building. 
The High Line is a public park built on an historic railroad viaduct elevated above the streets on the West Side of Manhattan.