Socrates Sculpture Park is an outdoor museum and public park where artists can create and exhibit sculptures and multi-media installations. It is located one block from the

Noguchi Museum The Noguchi Museum, chartered as The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, is a museum and sculpture garden in the Long Island City section of Queens, New York City, designed and created by the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. ...

at the intersection of

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and Vernon Boulevard in the neighborhood of Astoria,

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, New York City. In addition to exhibition space, the park offers an arts education program, artist residency program, and job training.

History and description

Socrates Sculpture Park is located atop the mouth of the buried

Sunswick Creek Sunswick Creek is a buried stream located in Astoria and Long Island City, in the northwestern portion of Queens in New York City. It originated to the north of Queensboro Bridge and Queens Plaza in Long Island City, flowing north to the prese ...

. In 1986, American sculptor

Mark di Suvero Marco Polo di Suvero (born September 18, 1933, in Shanghai, China), better known as Mark di Suvero, is an abstract expressionist sculptor and 2010 National Medal of Arts recipient. Biography Early life and education Marco Polo di Suvero was bor ...

created Socrates Sculpture Park on an abandoned

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

and illegal dumpsite in Long Island City. The four-acre site is the largest outdoor space in New York City dedicated to exhibiting sculpture. The former landfill was renovated into the current park by a team of contemporary artists and local youths. The park operated for 14 years with only a temporary city park status. In 1998, the park was given official status by then New York City mayor

Rudolph Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 198 ...

as a permanent city park after a developer attempted to erect luxury apartments and a marina on the site after the park's lease had expired. In 2005, the park was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the

Carnegie Corporation The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...

, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

At the Socrates Sculpture Park's main entrance hangs a 10-by-28-foot billboard structure that has been an ongoing installation since 1999. The original billboard wa
a mirror image of the street created by artist Mathieu Borysevicz
built by ongoing volunteer Ross H. Radtke, a mechanical engineer and neighbour. New billboards are installed once or twice per year. Artists work with printmaking and photography to create an image that greets visitors as they enter the park, and sets the tone for the current show. The billboards are in conjunction with each spring exhibition. The park has numerous workshops and public programming. Many artists lead tour programs of current exhibitions, there are summer art projects, and various free public events, such as yoga and capoeira on Saturdays and outdoor movie screenings on Wednesdays that begin in mid July and end in mid August. GrowNYC runs an Astoria Farmer's Market in the park every Saturday during the summer months. In January 2019, the Park announced its plan to construct and install permanent staff offices made out of shipping containers. This would be the parks first permanent on-site structure.

Artists who have exhibited at Socrates Sculpture Park

Socrates Sculpture Park offers emerging and established artists an opportunity to make a temporary or permanent public sculpture in a New York City park. In 2018,

Virginia Overton Virginia Overton (born 1971) is an American artist. She is known for her site-specific and sculpture works that often incorporate found or readymade objects. In 2018 she was the first female artist to have a solo exhibition at the Socrates Scul ...

became the first female artist to have a solo exhibition at the Socrates Sculpture Park. *

Vito Acconci Vito Acconci (, ; January 24, 1940 – April 27, 2017) was an influential American performance, video and installation artist, whose diverse practice eventually included sculpture, architectural design, and landscape design. His foundational p ...

1986 *

Maren Hassinger Maren Hassinger (born Maren Louise Jenkins in 1947) is an African-American artist and educator whose career spans four decades. Hassinger uses sculpture, film, dance, performance art, and public art to explore the relationship between the natural ...

1988, 2022 *

Merle Temkin Merle Temkin is a New York City-based painter, sculptor and installation artist, known for vibrant, abstracted paintings based on her own enlarged fingerprint, and earlier site-specific, mirrored installations of the 1980s. Her work has often in ...

1991 *

Sanford Biggers Sanford Biggers (born 1970 in Los Angeles) is a Harlem-based interdisciplinary artist who works in film/video, installation, sculpture, music, and performance.

2001 *

Agnes Denes Agnes Denes (Dénes Ágnes; born 1931 in Budapest) is a Hungarian-born American conceptual artist based in New York. She is known for works in a wide range of media—from poetry and philosophical writings to extremely detailed drawings, sculpt ...

2015

Governance

The current executive director of the park is John Hatfield, former deputy director of the

New Museum of Contemporary Art The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Scho ...

. Some former executive directors of the park include Alyson Baker (2000–2011), Kathleen Gilrain (1995–2000), and

Eve Sussman Eve Sussman is a British-born American artist of film, video, installation, sculpture, and photography. She was educated at Robert College of Istanbul, University of Canterbury, and Bennington College. She resides in Brooklyn, New York, where h ...

(1993- ).

Board of directors

, chair emeritus * Stuart Match Suna, president * Robert F. Goldrich, vice president * Ivana Mestrovic, secretary and treasurer * Joel Shapiro * Maxine Frankel *

Richard Gluckman Gluckman Tang Architects, (previously Gluckman Mayner Architects), is a New York City based architecture firm providing services in architecture, planning, and interior design. Established by Richard Gluckman in 1977, the firm is known for mini ...

, FAIA *

Hugh Hardy Hugh Hardy (July 26, 1932 – March 17, 2017) was an American architect, known for designing and revitalizing theaters, performing arts venues, public spaces, and cultural facilities across the United States. ''The New Yorker'' writer Brendan ...

, FAIA *

Brooke Kamin Rapaport Brooke Kamin Rapaport is Deputy Director and Martin Friedman Chief Curator at Madison Square, Madison Square Park Conservancy in New York City. She is responsible for the outdoor public sculpture program of commissioned work by contemporary artis ...

Ursula von Rydingsvard Ursula von Rydingsvard (née Karoliszyn; born 1942) is a sculptor who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is best known for creating large-scale works influenced by nature, primarily using cedar and other forms of timber. Early life and ...

* Deidrea Miller * Shaun Leonar
Shaun Leonardo
*

Alison Saar Alison Saar (born February 5, 1956) is a Los Angeles, California based sculptor, mixed-media, and installation artist. Her artwork focuses on the African diaspora and black female identity and is influenced by African, Caribbean, and Latin Ameri ...

* Kimberly Strong * Martin Silver, ''Ex Officio''

References

External links