NYC Street Art
sidewalks and lamp posts as art exhibition space during the pandemic
Sidewalks in New York City are important passageways. The pandemic has both made people use the sidewalks more for outdoor dining and chatting with neighbors. However, the combination of stress over the pandemic and an increase in trash, rats and graffiti has also meant that the some people are more likely to be stoic on sidewalks than enjoy them. This intervention hopes to alleviate this situation in Chelsea — a neighborhood in Chelsea with a largely residential population.
Sidewalks are passageways in New York City and as such spaces that are interesting sites for design interventions. While many people in American cities get around in cars and on public transportation, New York City has the distinction of being “walkable” - or pedestrian-friendly.
The Intervention
A hybrid of an art exhibition and a scavenger hunt, this intervention highlights the work of new and emerging street artists. The artworks are mounted in an environmentally-friendly wrap on the lamp post base. A distinctive marker in orange, white and blue — New York’s official colors — plus a QR code complete this installation:
The App
The app is accessed by scanning the QR code on the sidewalk. There are options to track down artworks with clues. Clues to these pieces are provided once one has photographed a “find” and submitted it to NYC Street Art.
Partnerships
Four potential partners exist for this project. The NYC Department of Transportation overseas the city’s lamp posts. There is a problem with the bases being destroyed by dog urine that might be alleviated by the environmentally-friendly coating that would be the substrate for these artworks. The fact that these artworks would be up for two weeks before being replaced would insure that the lamp posts were protected. HighLine Art could along with the Whitney help find artists to create pieces for this exhibition. Finally, Chelsea Art Gallery guide could help with signage, the app and publicity.
Reflection and Next Steps
This was an interesting project. Much of what made it interesting was zeroing in on the demographics of a particular neighborhood in New York City. By building an intervention around a fictional person (who is an aggregate of many of my neighbors), I was able to refine the kind of intervention that might appeal to this group. Certainly the loss of “fun” and culture heightened by the pandemic makes this a project that could generate interest. Set as it is within an area of Chelsea that includes the Highline, the art galleries and the Whitney Museum makes this a natural as well.