Art Is All Around Campaign Highlights Public Art in Lower Manhattan

By Staff | Downtown Alliance

New York City is home to some of the most impressive art museums in the world, with everything on view from ancient Egyptian temples to Renaissance masterpieces to Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup cans. But you don’t have to hit the subway and pay museum admission just to see great art. You might not immediately think of Lower Manhattan as an art lover’s paradise. But the walkable square mile south of Chambers Street is, in fact, a grand, open-air museum, with dozens of permanent and temporary installations of large-scale sculpture and public art.

Dubuffet, Koons and Noguchi are just a few of the famous artists whose masterpieces have found a home here.

To celebrate all the public art Lower Manhattan has to offer, this summer the Alliance launched a new campaign that highlights some of the neighborhood’s best pieces and celebrates downtown as one of the city’s premier arts and culture hubs. Dubbed “Art Is All Around,” the campaign features 23 pieces of art, including Ape & Cat by Jim Dine (above); Eyes, by Louise Bourgeois; and Keith Haring’s Figure Balancing on a Dog.

You can spot informational ads about these pieces on all the Big Belly trash cans in the neighborhood, as well as on the light pole banners. The ads are located within a few blocks of the art pieces they feature, so you’ll be able to stroll over and check them out IRL once you’re done reading up on them.