Connect the Dots: A Self-Guided Walk to Public Art in Lower Manhattan

Mercifully, the snowiest February in New York in recorded history is gone. Welcome, March! The promise of spring brings pleasant thoughts of long walks in the streets, and while this walker of the streets looks forward to seeing many a museum exhibit, noted here recently, there's so much art to enjoy outside. Through multiple programs and sponsors for public art in New York, the city itself constitutes a vast outdoor museum. The art collection of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation alone rivals collections in major municipal museums. Though the reality of the climate in March should bring more cold days to come, the warmer days may provide a good occasion to stretch the feet and explore some of the city's best contemporary outdoor sculptures, traditional monuments and memorials, and temporary art installations.


Lower Manhattan, with its tapered narrow geography between the two rivers spilling into the New York harbor, is not only a convenient area to walk but it's rich in public art. Feel free to shorten the suggested 3.5-mile self-guided walk shown here, but don't skip Jean Dubuffet's Group of Four Trees, 1969-72, in front of the Chase Manhattan Bank Plaza off of Pine Street, Louise Nevelson Plaza on Maiden Lane, or many of the works in Battery Park City. The latter area, under the guidance of the Battery Park City Authority, raised a new high standard in the 1980s with its commitment to incorporating public art into the new community. There, I'm particularly fond of Jim Dine's Ape and Cat (at the Dance) in Robert F. Wagner. Jr. Park, a blend of charm and danger, and South Cove, a great collaborative work of environmental design. Also welcome is the Downtown Alliance's public art program, Re:Construction, that invites artists to install artwork along the perimeter of sites that are either stalled or under construction. One work, Walking Men 99, is noted here, but look for more throughout downtown. (website )


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What is not apparent, on the surface at least, is the various artworks underground in this area, part of the MTA's Arts for Transit program. Those mosaic eyes following you underground on the 1 stop at Chambers Street may be Oculus (1988) by Andrew Ginzel & Kristin Jones. Another famous work of public art can be seen from several places along the Battery -  the Statue of Liberty. The work is so heavily laden as a symbol of freedom and nation that it's easy to overlook the fact that it's a great example of successful public art.  

Jean Parker Phifer's book, Public Art New York (W. W. Norton & Co., 2009), gives an excellent overview of the artwork in the city, selecting highlights from thousands of public artworks.

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple of Jean Dubuffet's Group of Four Trees, 1972, and The Red Cube, 1967, by Isamu Noguchi.