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Poster House and Times Square Arts Partner on Citywide Public Art Project in collaboration with Print Magazine and For Freedoms
Digital PSAs Powered by LinkNYC, Silvercast, and Times Square Alliance
PSA by Maira Kalman at 20 Times Square. Photo by Ian Douglas. Courtesy of Poster House and Times Square Arts.
(NEW YORK, NY – April 17, 2020) – Starting today in New York City, nearly 1,800 digital billboards and screens across all five boroughs will begin displaying messages of public safety, gratitude, pride, and solidarity with essential workers.
The project will radiate out from New York City’s iconic Times Square, and reach all five boroughs through 1,774 LinkNYC kiosks and Silvercast billboards above the Lincoln Tunnel, all digital spaces donated to the project.
The expansive campaign is the result of a partnership between New York City museum Poster House and Times Square Arts , the public art program of the Times Square Alliance. The initiative will roll-out in two phases. First with graphic designers rallied by Print Magazine in collaboration with Poster House, then with contemporary artists in collaboration with For Freedoms and Times Square Arts.
Interested in coverage? Additional images, b-roll, and select interviews available. Please contact Marcella Zimmermann (marcella@culturalcounsel.com) to discuss.
PSA by Edel Rodriguez. Courtesy of Poster House and Times Square Arts.
“This citywide PSA campaign is an incredible opportunity for artists to communicate the pride and overwhelming gratitude we all feel for our health care and essential workers here in Times Square and across all five boroughs of New York,” said Jean Cooney, Times Square Arts Director. “As it has so often in the past during moments of crisis or celebration, Times Square will channel the spirit of the city to the country and to the world,” added Times Square Alliance President Tim Tompkins.
The cultural organizations merged plans to produce digital PSA campaigns, bringing together their respective artistic and design communities and combining resources to reach as many New Yorkers as possible.
“With people all over New York banding together to combat this disease and support those on the front lines, it was only natural for New York organizations to partner in that same spirit, bringing together the power of mass communication and public art, then magnifying it with our gratitude,” said Poster House Director Julia Knight.
PSAs by Ola Baldych. Courtesy of Poster House and Times Square Arts.
The campaign will reach New Yorkers on their essential outings, and especially those on the front line of the crisis — doctors and nurses, public transportation personnel, grocery store employees, delivery staff, and restaurant workers, and more — whose work is sustaining the city.
Whether included as part of the landscape of New York by photojournalists and video crews reporting on the pandemic or shared on social media, the PSAs will communicate New York’s resilience and solidarity, bringing the campaign to a global digital audience.
“Posters are design ed first and foremost to convey messages. To catch viewers' eyes, to draw those eyes into information and often demand action,” said Steven Heller, co-Editorial Director at Print Magazine. “These particular public service announcements serve another goal. They are celebrations of the first responders and myriad essential workers who courageously enable the city function.”
*Participating artists include Ola Baldych, Seymour Chwast, Pablo Delcan, Matt Dorfman, Milton Glaser, Jessica Hische, Joe Hollier, Mirko Ilić, Maira Kalman, Ross MacDonald, Bobby Martin and Jennifer Kinon, Richard McGuire, Debbie Millman, Emily Oberman, Gemma O’Brien, Edel Rodriguez, Paul Sahre, Paula Scher, Klaas Verplancke, Strick&Williams and Zipeng Zhu.
*List in formation.
Left : PSA by Matt Dorfman. Right : PSA by Paul Sahre. Courtesy of Poster House and Times Square Arts.
Times Square screens are generously provided by Morgan Stanley, American Eagle, Maefield Development, Reuters, NASDAQ, and Branded Cities.
ABOUT OUR PARTNERS
Poster House
Opened in 2019, Poster House is a new design museum that draws out hidden histories of poster art as never before, maps their continued role in today’s media landscape, and explores what posters can reveal about a specific time and place through a combination of design, art, advertising, and public messaging. Recent exhibitions include The Sleeping Giant: Posters & The Chinese Economy, Baptized By Beefcake: The Golden Age of Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, and Alphonse Mucha: Art Nouveau / Nouvelle Femme.
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.
Generous support of Times Square Arts is provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts; by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Visit www.timessquarenyc.org/arts for more information. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @TSqArts.
Print Magazine
Print (founded 1940) is an iconic design and visual culture brand serving as the go-to industry resource for design dialogue and inspiration, design education, profiles of leading design minds and everything in between. Through a top-ranking website and social media platforms, The Daily Heller column, and one of the most well-respected design competitions in the industry, Print is the leading authority on all things design today. Relaunched in 2020, Print continues to build a dialogue about design by detailing the intersections of art and culture. Rather than focusing on the how-to of design, Print covers the why—why the world of design looks the way it does, how it has evolved, and why the way it looks matters.
For Freedoms
Founded in 2016 by artists Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman, For Freedoms is a platform for creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action. Inspired by American artist Norman Rockwell’s paintings of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms (1941)—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear—For Freedoms’ exhibitions, installations, and public programs use art to deepen public discussions on civic issues and core values, and to advocate for equality, dialogue, and civic participation. As a nexus between art, politics, commerce, and education, For Freedoms aims to inject anti-partisan, critical thinking that fine art requires into the political landscape through programming, exhibitions, and public artworks. In 2018, For Freedoms launched the 50 State Initiative: the largest creative collaboration in U.S. history.
LinkNYC
LinkNYC is the first-of-its-kind communications network replacing the city’s payphones to create the world’s fastest and largest free public Wi-Fi network. LinkNYC provides important tools to communities to access connectivity and social services, and provides real-time updates, information, and content via the kiosks' digital displays. More than 9 million people have used the free gigabit Wi-Fi service and over 200,000 phone calls are made each week. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers access 311 and Aunt Bertha, a platform to connect with local nonprofits and services, via Link tablets every month to access information on housing and other resources. All of LinkNYC’s services are 100% free for users and come at no cost to taxpayers. For more information and to find a Link near you, visit link.nyc .
Pearl Media
Pearl Media develops, manages and sells unique marketing and digital media opportunities. Working with best in class real estate assets, Pearl digitizes urban core mixed use commercial space, transit centers and transit adjacent properties in top markets with premium place-based digital signage networks. We target and transform premium large format static properties and vacant storefronts into best-in-market out-of-home advertising opportunities. At Pearl we leverage all of our creative and technical disciplines to provide an all-encompassing 360-degree platform that enhances a real estate asset’s persona allowing brands to engage with consumers in meaningful ways where they work, shop, live and play through digital signage, experiential activation spaces and sponsorship
20 Times Square
For more than a decade, Mark Siffin, CEO of Maefield Development, which owns 20 Times Square, has delivered passionate support for the Times Square community and the Alliance. As a life-long artist himself, Siffin consistently embraces the importance of young artists being presented to the 127MM-person pedestrian audience that Times Square delivers every year. 20 Times Square is at the epicenter of this activity and serves as the show case stage in our daily celebration of our shared humanity.
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in more than 41 countries, the Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For more information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com .
PRESS CONTACTS
Marcella Zimmermann
Vice President, Cultural Counsel
marcella@culturalcounsel.com
Ed Winstead
Director, Cultural Counsel
ed@culturalcounsel.com
