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(NEW YORK, NY — March 25, 2022) — This April, Times Square Arts celebrates the 10 year anniversary of its iconic program Midnight Moment, the world’s largest and longest-running digital public art exhibition synchronized on electronic billboards in Times Square nightly from 11:57pm to midnight. The program, which began on just six screens in Times Square, has expanded to display artwork on over 90 screens throughout the district.
To celebrate the anniversary, Times Square Arts has launched a special program featuring twelve women artists over the course of a year, from April 2022 through March 2023. Presenting artists include legendary video artist Joan Jonas, biology-inspired artist Sofia Crespo, new media artist and creative technologist LaJuné McMillian, new media artist Nancy Baker Cahill, and multi-disciplinary artist and performer Kilo Kish, who released her new album American Gurl today.
“In looking back at how much the program has grown throughout the years to showcase over 100 artists on now nearly 100 screens, it’s impossible to overlook the many women who have played an important role leading up to the program’s launch, making space for free public art in one of the most powerful commercial places in the world,” said Jean Cooney, Times Square Arts Director. “Midnight Moment continues to serve as a stage for artists to share their work with hundreds of thousands of viewers, and it’s an honor to turn this platform over to twelve remarkable women artists for our program this year.”
The 10-year anniversary pays homage to the female administrators, artists, and programmers who have been influential in staging public art on the commercial billboards of Times Square for over 40 years. A seminal moment for the program was in 1982 when artist Jane Dickson — who worked as a programmer for 1 Times Square — and Jenny Dixon, the Acting Director of Public Art Fund at the time, launched Messages to the Public, 1982–1990. It marked the earliest presentation of artists' work on the Spectacolor sign, the very first electronic billboard in the history of the district. In the years that followed, public art organization Creative Time presented video programs such as 59th Minute, 2000-2006 and 44 1/2 , 2009–2011, led by then-director Anne Pasternak. In 2012, Sherry Dobbin, then Times Square Arts’ Director, officially launched the Midnight Moment program.
The Midnight Moment program, which has an estimated annual viewership of nearly 1.5 million, has brought innovative, spectacular, and accessible public art to New Yorkers and visitors from across the globe, 364 nights a year, for a decade. Featuring a new Midnight Moment each month, Times Square Arts has presented the work of over 115 artists, including Yoko Ono, Nick Cave, Rashaad Newsome, and Laurie Anderson, and more recently, David Hockney, Shantell Martin, Kambui Olujimi, Sondra Perry, Jeffrey Gibson, and Pamela Council.
Midnight Moment artists will be selected through invitation and open call, and represent a mix of emerging and established talent, luminaries in the field of video art, as well those in the early stages of working with the medium. The selection committee will feature guest curators throughout the year.
To kick off the anniversary, Times Square Arts will present artist Joan Jonas’s Wolf Lights (2004-2005) for the month of April, a video installation that depicts a female figure in a paper-maché wolf mask moving gracefully against the backdrop of a Las Vegas lightscape. In May, Times Square Arts will show Sofia Crespo’s video work, Critically Extant, a project that explores just how little we know about the natural world through testing the limits of the data openly available to us in our digital lives. In the months to follow, the program will feature LaJuné McMillan, Nancy Baker Cahill, and Kilo Kish and more.
Credits and Acknowledgements
Support for Midnight Moment is provided by Meta Open Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Times Square Advertising Coalition. Major support of Times Square Arts is provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Morgan Stanley. Additional program support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
The Midnight Moment program is made possible thanks to the Times Square Advertising Coalition and our billboard operators: ABC SuperSign, American Eagle, Branded Cities, Clear Channel, Disney Store, Express, Levi's, LG, Luxottica Group S.p.A., Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, New Tradition, Sensory Interactive, Sephora, Sherwood Equities, Show + Tell, Silvercast, Swarovski, T-Mobile, and JC Decaux.
ABOUT TIMES SQUARE ARTS
Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators, such as Mel Chin, Tracey Emin, Jeffrey Gibson, Ryan McGinley, Yoko Ono, and Kehinde Wiley, to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain central to the district's unique identity.
ABOUT MIDNIGHT MOMENT
Midnight Moment is the world’s largest, longest-running digital art exhibition, synchronized on electronic billboards throughout Times Square nightly from 11:57pm to midnight. Presented by the Times Square Advertising Coalition and curated by Times Square Arts since 2012, it has an estimated annual viewership of 2.5 million.
PRESS CONTACTS
Ali Rigo
Senior Account Executive, Cultural Counsel
ali@culturalcounsel.com
Lauren Gagnon
Account Coordinator, Cultural Counsel
lauren@culturalcounsel.com
