Harlem Sculpture Gardens Second Large–Scale Exhibition To Open May 2025

West Harlem Art Fund and New York Artist Equity Association are pleased to announce the second rendition of Harlem Sculpture Gardens (HSG), a large-scale outdoor exhibition, curated to foster joy and beauty within the Harlem community. Opening on May 2nd this exhibition runs until October 30, 2025. Sculpture and design works will be displayed in three historic parks and one plaza. Among the sites are:

Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Park, Jackie Robinson Park, Montefiore Park

Featured Artists will include Motohiro Takeda, Coby Kennedy, Peter Miller, David Sheldon, Dianne Smith and Iliana Emilia Garcia.

Sculpture parks were first created in the United States between the 1960s and the 1980s, including Griffis Sculpture Park, Storm King, Olympic Sculpture Park, Socrates Park, and Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park, which is affiliated with the North Carolina Museum of Art. Newer parks include the EJI Legacy Sites, Carol R. Brown Sculpture Garden at Hartwood Acres Park, Glenn Green Galleries & Sculpture Garden, Benson Sculpture Garden or Brookgreen Gardens.

Several of these parks are privately owned and operated, while others are located on public lands managed in conjunction with local municipalities.

West Harlem Art Fund and NY Artist Equity Association, the co-presenters of Harlem Sculpture Gardens (HSG), are leveraging public land to present a sculpture park across historic sites in neighborhoods of color. This approach radically deconstructs prevailing curatorial hegemonies that scaffold a hierarchal and monetized presentation of visual art which in turn preserves segregationist narratives and a selective practitioner and viewership pool based on class and color.

By activating public space with art, HSG empowers a diverse collective uniting curators, artists, donors, municipal agencies and allied intuitions in a common effort to map humanist principles and creationist liberties as accessible universals. In addition to architecting diverse cultural icon markers, HSG focuses attention and resources on resiliency and housing issues impacting urban parkland and the built environment. Adjacent programming supports climate research, community-based conservation efforts, and workforce development.

Lastly, West Harlem Art Fund and NY Artist Equity Association, will be expanding its public art programming in 2025 to include partnerships with Lower East Side and East Village community gardens.