PAIR - DCLA

NYC Cultural Affairs


Public Artists in Residence (PAIR)

City Canvas
Percent for Art
Public Art as Community Engagement
Public Artists in Residence (PAIR)
Current Opportunities

City Canvas

Percent for Art

Public Art as Community Engagement

Public Artists in Residence (PAIR)

Current Opportunities


About PAIR

Public Artists in Residence (PAIR) is a municipal residency program that embeds artists in city government to propose and implement creative solutions to pressing civic challenges. Launched in the fall of 2015, PAIR takes its inspiration and its name from the pioneering work of artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the first official (unsalaried) artist-in-residence with the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY), 1977 – present.

PAIR is based on the premise that artists are creative problem-solvers. They are able to create long-term and lasting impact by working collaboratively and in open-ended processes to build community bonds, open channels for two-way dialogue, and reimagine realities to create new possibilities for those who experience and participate in the work.

Through a series of conversations, DCLA and a partner City Agency decide on a broad population, challenge, and/or goal the partner agency wishes to focus on. With Commissioner-level support, DCLA issues an open call for artists or recommends artists based on artistic excellence and demonstrated knowledge of the particular social issues addressed in the residency. The final artist selection is made in partnership with both agencies.

Each PAIR is a minimum of one year. The residency begins with a research phase, during which the artist spends time at the agency meeting staff and learning about its operations and initiatives while also introducing their art practice and process to agency staff. The research phase concludes with a proposal from the artist outlining one or more public-facing participatory projects that will be implemented in partnership with the agency. Artists receive a fee, as well as in-kind resources such as desk space with the partner agency, an access to DCLA's Materials for the Arts.

Open Call

The 2025-2026 PAIR Open Call will be announced in Spring 2025.

Current Public Artists in Residence (PAIRs)

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo

Human Resources Administration-Fair Fares Program (HRA-FF)

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, A Chorus, 2024. Photo by: Michael hull. Image courtesy of the artist.

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo is a mixed media artist whose work focuses on collections, memorialization and the act of leaving one's digital imprint for the next generation. He is currently in residence with the Human Resources Administration-Fair Fares Program (HRA-FF). Gabe’s work takes the form of video sculptures, immersive performances, large scale public video artworks and vending machines that sell human DNA. His work has been featured at LACMA, the V&A Museum, The Neon Museum of Las Vegas, TED, Times Square and Grand Central Station. He is also the co-director of ITP at NYU where he teaches classes such as Video Sculpture.

Singha Hon

Mayor's Office of Equity & Racial Justice (MOERJ)

Until We The People Means All of Us, digital illustration created by Singha Hon for the American Civil Liberties Union, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist.

Singha Hon is a visual artist and illustrator from New York City. She is currently in residence with the Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice (MOERJ). Through painting, illustration, and sculpture, her work is inspired by nature, dreams, community, and mythology, and the many threads that weave us all together. She has worked with organizations such as Womanly Magazine, The ACLU, People’s Paper Co-Op, and O+ Positive and the W.O.W. Project. She has worked as a teaching artist with The W.O.W. Project through their storefront residency and through the Creatives Rebuild New York program. Her murals and installations exist across New York, including in downtown Manhattan and in Kingston, NY.

Caitlyn McCain

Commission on Human Rights (CCHR)

Cailtyn McCain performing in Washington Square Park. Photo by Shakespeare in The Square. Image courtesy of the artist.

Caitlyn McCain is an award-winning, black-mixed-queer NYC-based artist, educator and actor. She is currently in residence with the Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). With a background in drama and Applied Theatre, Caitlyn believes theatre is the most powerful tool for connection, self-discovery, and social change. Caitlyn has worked with diverse populations including K-12 students across NYC, families in transitional housing, LGBTQIA+ communities and neuro-divergent communities to practice creative critical thinking and meaning making through theatre. Caitlyn’s work aims to empower people of all ages to dream, to imagine and to rehearse new realities, making space for a more just and compassionate world.

Immanuel Oni

Administration for Children's Services

Immanuel Oni, Halo, 2024. Multimedia installation at Chrystie St. African Burial ground at M'finda Kalunga Garden. Photo by Elyse Mertz. Image courtesy of the artist.

Immanuel Oni is a first-generation Nigerian-American artist and space doula living in New York City, originally from Houston, TX. He is currently in residence with the Division of Youth and Family Justice at the Administration for Children's Services (ACS). Oni believes art is not about what he is making but who he is making it for. His work explores loss, liberation, and its deep connection with place. Oni is a former Director of Community Design at the New York City’s Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and an Adjunct Professor at Parsons the New School for Design. He holds a Dual Bachelor’s in Science degree in Biology and Psychology from the University of Houston and a Master’s in Architecture degree from Parsons New School of Design. Oni is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Liminal, a non-profit that works at the intersection of art, unity, and space.

Past Public Artists in Residence (PAIRs)

Listed alphabetically by artists' last name.

Yazmany Arboleda

Civic Engagement Commission (CEC)

Yazmany Arboleda is a Colombian American artist based in New York City. An architect by training, Yazmany's practice focuses on creating "Living Sculptures," people coming together to transform the world through co-creation. Over the past two decades he has created public art projects with communities in India, Japan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Afghanistan, Spain, Colombia and the United States. He has collaborated with Carnegie Hall, the Yale School of Management, and BRIC among others. He is currently the artist in residence at IntegrateNYC and the associate director of communications for Artists Striving To End Poverty. He is a cofounder of the Future Historical Society, and the Artist As Citizen Conference. He has lectured at UNC, MIT, and LPAC about the power of art in public space. To learn more about Yazmany, visit yazmany.net.

While engaged with the Civic Engagement Commission, Yazmany created The People's Bus, a community center on wheels designed to engage New Yorkers in civic life through beauty and joy.

New York Announces Latest Public Art Projects: "Artists Are Creative Problem Solvers."

Posted: August 27, 2020 by Forbes

An Artist Repurposed a Corrections Vehicle to Encourage New Yorkers to Vote

Published on June 14, 2021 by Hyperallergic

Rachel Barnard

Department of Probation (DOP)

Rachel Barnard is a social practice artist formally trained as an architect. She was in residence with the Department of Probation (DOP) in 2018.In 2012 she founded Young New Yorkers (YNY), an arts diversion program for teens being prosecuted as adult in criminal court. To date over 600 young people have been sentenced to make art at YNY instead of jail or other adult sanctions. Most participants have had their adult criminal cases dismissed and sealed. Barnard's art practice brings large groups of people together from diverse, and oftentimes adversarial, communities to create new spaces of belonging. She worked with DOP to build trust, strengthen relationships, and improve communication and engagement between probation officers and the people under their supervision. DOP and Barnard sought to find ways to overcome the stigma of justice system involvement, which can damage their constituents' relationships with family and community while also posing barriers to opportunities such as employment and housing.

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Announces Four New Public Artists in Residence

Posted: January 23, 2018

"Four New Public Artists in Residence Appointed by NYC Department of Cultural Affairs"

Published: January 23, 2018 by Artnews

Tania Bruguera

Mayor's office of immigrant Affairs (MOIA)

"CycleNews" featuring Mujeres en Movimiento; a project developed by Tania Bruguera for PAIR.

Tania Bruguera was in residence with the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) in 2015A politically motivated performance artist, Tania Bruguera explores the relationship between art, activism, and social change in works that examine the social effects of political and economic power. By creating proposals and aesthetic models for others to use and adapt, she defines herself as an initiator rather than an author, and often collaborates with multiple institutions as well as many individuals so that the full realization of her artwork occurs when others adopt and perpetuate it. Advancing the concept of arte útil (literally translated to useful art; art as a benefit and a tool), she proposes solutions to sociopolitical problems through the implementation of art, and has developed long-term projects that include a community center and a political party for immigrants, and a school for behavior art.

For her PAIR residency, Tanya asked the question: how can immigrant communities begin to trust the government and how, in turn, will the government demonstrate that it trusts immigrant communities? To address this question, Bruguera joined forces with long-time collaborators Mujeres en Movimiento, who use tactics from art and community organizing to advocate for neighborhood improvements, as well as Kollektiv Migrantas, a participatory design collective specializing in migrant rights. Together, the group created CycleNews, a two-way bike messenger service to communicate trusted, first-hand information between city agencies and immigrant communities.

For CycleNews, the Mujeres trained with MOIA to develop strategies to educate and engage immigrant residents about rights and services available to them through MOIA. Working with the Kollektiv Migrantas, Bruguera, the Mujeres, MOIA, and DCLA co-created picture-based materials outlining critical MOIA services to share with the Corona community. Every weekend for the duration of CycleNews, the Mujeres became creative bike messengers, delivering this specially-crafted information on acid yellow CycleNews bicycles. As messengers, the Mujeres served as direct points of contact between immigrant communities and government institutions and bring first-hand feedback, ideas, hopes, and fears to City officials.

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs Announce Tania Bruguera as Artist-In-Residence

Posted: July 14, 2015

NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, Department of Cultural Affairs' Public Artist in Residence Tania Bruguera Launches "CycleNews"

Posted: Tuesday May 30, 2017

Read more on Medium

"Tania Bruguera Launches Bike-Based Project to Improve Ties Between Immigrants and NYC Government"

Published: May 30, 2017 by artnet

Onyedika Chuke

Department of Correction (DOC)

Onyedika Chuke was in residence with the Department of Correction (DOC), Rikers Island in 2018. Onyedika Chuke is a New York-based American sculptor and archivist born in Onitsha, Nigeria. His largest body of work titled The Forever Museum Archive (2011-present), is a disquieting collection of objects, text and images in which Chuke analyze social, cultural and political structures. He is a graduate of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

During his PAIR residency with the Department of Correction (DOC), Onyedika worked with individuals on Rikers Island facing extremely challenging and traumatic circumstances to alleviate the negative impact of criminal punishment, create access to art, and open dialogue between policymakers and those in their custody.

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Announces Four New Public Artists in Residence

Posted: January 23, 2018

"Four New Public Artists in Residence Appointed by NYC Department of Cultural Affairs"

Published: January 23, 2018 by Artnews

Melanie Crean

NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC)

Melanie Crean is an artist and educator whose creative practice focuses on the relationship between systems of control, the body and concepts of time. Working primarily with photography, video, experimental narrative and participatory practice, she researches how architectures of power are represented in media, culture and technology, and explores how these structures can be challenged and re-patterned. Crean is an Associate Professor of Art, Media and Technology and current director of the BFA Design and Technology program at Parsons School of Design.

Melanie joins the DDC to help transform a construction site into a platform for exploring, imagining, creating, and enacting connections between neighbors and the public works that impact a neighborhood. Going into her residency, Melanie asks, "how are social and personal narratives inscribed in the built environment, and how might communities surface these stories to preserve them and inform the design process of evolving a site? How can we shift the idea of who is an expert urbanist; so that architects don't merely present completed designs to local communities for commentary at the end of the process, but rather learn from them from the start? What perspective and shift in power dynamic might community-driven co-design strategies offer agencies and professions that are predominantly hierarchical in structure?"

Sophia Dawson

Mayor's office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ)

Sophia Dawson is a Brooklyn based visual artist and muralist who has dedicated her life's work to exposing the stories and experiences of individuals who are striving to overcome the injustices they face. Examples of past work include Every Mother's Son, highlighting mothers who have lost their children to police brutality and racism in the US; Central Park 5, which raised awareness of and gain support for their suit against New York City; and Know Your Rights, done in partnership with Picture the Homeless and Peoples' Justice and 80 community members. She also participated in painting the Black Lives Matter murals on the streets of NYC. To learn more about Sophia, visit www.sophia-Dawson.com

Approaching her residency with the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, Sophia writes:

"How can a community shift the gaze on their individual and collective narratives by telling their own stories? What new perspectives does this shift offer for members of that community and for others? My practice is multi-faceted and Spirit led. I facilitate transformation, advocacy and awareness through collaborative and independent art initiatives. Every individual and issue portrayed in my work demands from me different levels of action, activism and community engagement. The ultimate goal is to humanize their struggle through art. The most challenging part about my work is being tasked to shift people's minds and demand that people unlearn and relearn the truth about the individuals in my work. That transformation is what I look forward to most."

New York Announces Latest Public Art Projects: "Artists Are Creative Problem Solvers."

Posted: August 27, 2020 by Forbes

Bryan Doerries

Department of Veterans' Services (DVS)

Bryan Doerries was in residence with the Department for Veteran's Services from 2017 to 2018. Bryan Doerries is a Brooklyn-based writer, director, and translator. A self-described evangelist for classical literature and its relevance to our lives today, Doerries uses age-old approaches to help individuals and communities heal from trauma and loss. He is the co-founder of Theater of War Productions, which presents programs that address the enduring impact of war as well as broader community issues such as gun violence, mental health, addiction, prison reform, sexual assault and domestic violence.

For his PAIR residency, Doerries partnered with the Department for Veteran's Services (DVS) and the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) to engage both veterans and civilians in community-specific performances that fostered health and healing through open discussion and exchange. Between January 2017 and December 2018, the free performances took place in more than 60 venues across New York, including public libraries, homeless shelters, public schools, and cultural organizations with each tailored to the needs of different communities.

Learn more about the project on the NYC Veterans website and on the Theater of War website

"Theater of War Director Named New York City Artist in Residence"

Published: March 2, 2017 by The New York Times

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

Commission on Human Rights (CCHR)

An installation by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh during her PAIR residency, at IMPACCT Brooklyn, 1224 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11216, May 2019

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh was in residence with the NYC Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) from 2018 to 2019. Recognizing that culture can be a powerful tool for combating deep-seated issues like anti-Black racism, the Commission partnered with artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh through the PAIR program to engage New Yorkers in a conversation about anti-Blackness and gender-based street harassment. Fazlalizadeh is a Black/Iranian visual artist and Oklahoma City native. Her project, Stop Telling Women to Smile, is a street art series that tackles gender-based street harassment around the world. Her work can be found on walls from New York to Paris, Los Angeles to Mexico City, and more, amassing international attention for tackling violence against women in public spaces. Tatyana has been profiled by the New York Times, NPR, MSNBC, the New Yorker, Time Magazine, and listed as one of Brooklyn's most influential people by Brooklyn Magazine. Tatyana's work can currently be seen on Spike Lee's Netflix series, She's Gotta Have It, for which she is also the show's Art Consultant. She is working on her first book, Stop Telling Women to Smile, with Seal Press. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Over the course of her 18-month residency with the Commission, Fazlalizadeh installed a series of large-scale murals and installations in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan featuring powerful imagery of New Yorkers whom she and the agency had engaged on these issues. Both the text and the imagery featured in the murals were informed by a series of community conversations Fazlalizadeh and the Commission conducted in partnership with Bronx Defenders, Girls for Gender Equity, YWCA Brooklyn, GRIOT Circle, Weeksville Heritage Center, Jamaica NAACP, New Settlement Community Centers and others. The Commission's 2018-2019 PAIR partnership with Fazlalizadeh represents an important effort to bring attention to human rights challenges faced by New Yorkers through the arts.

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Announces Four New Public Artists in Residence

Posted: January 23, 2018

View past projects

"Four New Public Artists in Residence Appointed by NYC Department of Cultural Affairs"

Published: January 23, 2018 by Artnews

"New York City is Teaming Up with an Activist Artist in the Fight Against Street Harassment"

Published: March 26, 2018 by The Cut

Ebony Noelle Golden

Mayor's office to end domestic and gender-based violence (ENDGBV)

Ebony Noelle Golden was in residence with the Mayor's Office to End Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV) in 2018. Ebony Noelle Golden is a South Bronx-based artist and cultural strategist who stages site-specific rituals and live art productions that profoundly explore the complexities of freedom in the time of now. Ebony is also the founder of Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative, a cultural consultancy and arts accelerator serving the arts & culture sector for close to a decade. Her creative work has been presented at Judson Memorial Church, National Black Theatre, Hayti Heritage Center, DC Arts Center, and the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance among others. Her curatorial projects have been presented at Brooklyn Museum, New York University, Alternate Roots, and The Brecht Forum among others.

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Announces Four New Public Artists in Residence

Posted: January 23, 2018

"Four New Public Artists in Residence Appointed by NYC Department of Cultural Affairs"

Published: January 23, 2018 by Artnews

Carlos Irijalba

NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC)

Carlos Irijalba is a multidisciplinary artist who works by the principle of pertinence, trying to remain context-responsive and enhance the connotations of the community. Much of a reactive artist, in projects like Pannotia (2016-ongoing) he works with geology and time sensitive materials that give people perspective over the dominant narratives in history. In projects like Hiatus (2022) or Muscle Memory (2019), using installation and sculpture made with existing materials or industrial process, he tries to reflect on the collective construction of territory while remaining sensitive to local geopolitics. He works with geology and time sensitive materials that give people perspective over the dominant narratives in history. In projects like Hiatus (2022) or Muscle Memory (2019), using installation and sculpture made with existing materials or industrial process, he tries to reflect on the collective construction of territory while remaining sensitive to local geopolitics.

Carlos will work as a Public Artist in Residence at DDC to help the public understand the challenges and complexities of providing infrastructure in a city with the over-arching goals of creating a sustainable, resilient, and equitable City. In anticipation of this work, Carlos says: “The visible materials and hidden networks in civic construction shape our physical navigation and emotional senses. Hardware like asphalt, stone, open space, metal-wrapped curbs fulfill an intended purpose while informal software like parking cone culture and fire hydrant sprinklers, create other realities. How do we bring awareness to this symbiotic and paradoxical relationship between planning intentions and actual uses? What can we learn from the gaps between the hardware and software that form the city’s infrastructural operating system?”

Modesto Flako Jimenez

NYC Health + Hospitals (NYC H+H)

Modesto Flako Jimenez and Oye Group present an eclectic mix of theater, dance, poetry, music, video installations and film, through festivals and productions. The Group curate work that sparks a dialogue over political and social issues critical to the community’s growth. They work with emerging artists and communities to create, play, and grow in an environment that challenges and supports them. The group also provide quality arts education programming that gives the Brooklyn Community the tools to generate forward-thinking art.

Modesto will serve as Public Artist in Residence in the Arts in Medicine Department
to bring its communication concerning community- and gun- violence to a larger audience, explore and develop alternative strategies, including around its NYC H+H Violence Interruption and Prevention programs, advocacy, safety and wellness that address the gun violence crisis, create meaningful public dialogue and community engagement and mobilization. “Countless young people are victims of gun violence in our city each year,” said Modesto. “Countless others have access to guns, and tens of thousands are exposed via social media and news headlines of gun violence across our city, country, and world. Tragically, too many lack social support and mental health services to avoid gun violence. Theater, reading, writing, and poetry - possibly incorporating stories of violence among their communities - can be used to provide youth with self-awareness, self-expression, confidence, and other skills to avoid gun violence and educate their peers on how they may do the same.”

sTo Len

NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY)

sTo Len is a Queens based artist with interests in printmaking, installation, sound, video and performance. The cross-disciplinary nature of Len's work has included printmaking with polluted waterways, embedding a 12-part video into a virtual 3D scan of FreshKills Park, broadcasting pirate radio shows, reclaiming public space for art studios, recycling waste into art materials, and hosting events at Superfund sites. Len was the first artist in residence at AlexRenew Wastewater Treatment facility in Virginia and is a member of Works on Water, a group of artists and activists working with and about water in the face of climate change and environmental justice concerns.

sTo was invited to DSNY to bring dignity, respect, and appreciation to the agency's critical but often invisible workforce that makes life in New York City possible. As a starting point, sTo says, "I am interested in examining artful ways to cultivate a regenerative relationship between the public and the DSNY in order to help dispel the myth of "out of sight, out of mind." I believe we must acknowledge our own waste stream and the essential work of the DSNY by giving them poetic visibility. How might we re-imagine our attitudes toward waste as fertile ground for change? How can we modify our experience of sanitation work to free it from "dirty work" and give it a renewed symbolic power that incites care? How can rituals help us waste better?"

Learn more about the project on The Office of In Visibility website.

Trash Is His Muse: Meet the Sanitation Department’s Resident Artist
Posted: May 31, 2022, by the New York Times

The Lost Collective

Administration for Children's Service (ACS)

The Lost Collective was in residence with the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) from 2016 to 2017. The Lost Collective is a group of four artists – Keelay Gipson, Rebeca Rad, Josh Adam Ramos, and Britton Smith – who have extensive experience in New York theater as actors, directors, writers, musicians, producers, educators, and mentors. Their practice is rooted in the intersection of art and activism, and their work is focused on the voices of underrepresented populations, including people of color and the LGBTQ community. The collective mounted two productions of a play entitled The Lost in 2014 and 2015 that used spoken word poetry and hip hop/R&B music to tell a story about youths at the margins of society and their struggle to create a space for themselves.

For their PAIR with the Administration for Children's Services (ACS), the Collective worked with 30 LGBTQ+ youth in five group homes across the City to create space for creative expression and creative agency. The youth delved into a range of projects, from self-portraiture, to voguing, to cooking, to martial arts, to autobiographical music videos. The Lost Collective built meaningful relationships with the youth, exposing them to artistic happenings, practices, and other artists in NYC. The residency culminated in a public exhibition of work by the youth, including performances of original music and screenings of experimental films, at the Nuyorican Poet's Café.

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and NYC Administration for Children's Services Announce Selection of the Lost Collective for Artist Residency Serving LGBTQ Youth in Foster Care Facilities

Posted: June 30, 2016

"Meet the Collective That's Connecting LGBTQ Foster Youth With the Arts"

Published: June 30, 2016 by The Observer>

Taja Lindley

Department of Health (DOH)

Taja Lindley is an artist, healer, and activist based in New York City. She is currently in residence with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH). Through iterative and interdisciplinary practices, she creates socially engaged artwork that transforms audiences, shifts culture, and moves people to action. She uses movement, text, installation, ritual, burlesque, and multi-media to create immersive works that are concerned with freedom, healing, and pleasure. Her performances, films, and installations have been featured at Brooklyn Museum; La Mama Theater; New York Live Arts; the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University; the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Carver Museum in Austin, Texas; the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California; and more. She is the founder of Colored Girls Hustle and a member of Echoing Ida and Harriet's Apothecary. In addition to being an artist, Lindley is actively engaged in social movements as a writer, consultant, and facilitator. Most recently, she served as a Sexual and Reproductive Justice Consultant at DOHMH, facilitating a community-driven process that created The New York City Standards for Respectful Care at Birth.

As a PAIR at DOHMH's Center for Health Equity, Lindley uses community engagement strategies that deepens the collective understanding of how racism and gender oppression affect birth outcomes. Working out of the Tremont Neighborhood Health Action Center, she is exploring how the voices of pregnant and parenting Black people in the Bronx can advance reproductive justice and inform changes in medical practices and government policies.

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Announces Four New Public Artists in Residence

Posted: April 5, 2019

Artists as 'Creative Problem-Solvers' at City Agencies

Published: The New York Times, April 5, 2019

Mary Miss

Department of Design and Construction (DDC)

Mary Miss was in residence with the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) in 2016. Mary Miss has reshaped the boundaries between sculpture, architecture, landscape design and installation art by articulating a vision of the public sphere where it is possible for an artist to address the issues of our time. Her installations focus on social, cultural and environmental sustainability to reveal history, ecology or aspects of sites that have gone unnoticed. In addition to the ongoing initiative BROADWAY: 1000 Steps, she recently completed a project for the Indianapolis Museum of Art focusing on a 6-mile stretch of the White River. Miss was one of four artists who developed concepts for envisioning the future of Long Island City as part of the exhibition, Civic Action: A Vision for Long Island City at the Noguchi Museum and Socrates Sculpture Park. She has received grants from the NEA, NOAA, and the National Science Foundation. In 2012 she was awarded NYC Design Commission's Award for Excellence in Design for The Passage: A Moving Memorial on Staten Island.

Miss worked within the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) in an advisory capacity, to identify "as many routes as possible to engage artists in reimagining cities for the 21st century." She held several public discussions and workshops with DDC staff to brainstorm entry points for artists to create temporary works throughout the design and construction process.

Mary Miss Named First New York City Department of Design and Construction Artist-in-Residence

Exploring the intersection of art, architecture and public design

Posted: June 13, 2016

"Decoding the City: An interview with Mary Miss, DDC artist-in-residence"

Published: May 26, 2017 by NYC x Design

Kameron Neal

Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)

Kameron Neal is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersections of video, performance, and design. A Princess Grace Awardee and NYSCA/NYFA Fellow, Kameron is interested in exploring how video can move beyond the screen and interact with real space and real people in real time. This often takes the form of large-scale public projections, installations, and collaborations with artists that work in the theater, in music, and in dance. Kameron's work has been presented by a variety of institutions including The Public Theater, BAM, Ars Nova, Digital Graffiti, CultureHub, New Orleans Film Festival, and the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum. See photos of Kameron Neal and their past work here.

At DORIS, Kameron will imagine new ways to access, present, and use a vast store of newly-digitized video content from the 1970's and 80's that captured pivotal events of the era. In anticipation of this work, Kameron says: "in a moment when people are thinking critically about the role of policing in our communities, how am I, a black queer artist, uniquely positioned to reclaim and repurpose NYPD surveillance footage that framed my people "enemies of the status quo"? As an artist that works at the intersections of video, design, and performance, I'm interested in using technology to breathe new life into stories from our city's past. If the archive is documentation of the people, how can it better serve the people? I'm interested in inviting community to participate in the creation of a new kind of archive."

Laura Nova

Department for the Aging (DFTA)

PAIR Laura Nova's (right) "Spiels on Wheel" performance at Art in Odd Places, as part of her residency with Department for the Aging, 2019.

Artist, athlete, and activator Laura Nova generates site-specific action-oriented projects which invite participatory energies of neighbors and strangers alike, particularly within the urban landscapes of older adult and migrant communities. She is currently in residence with the Department for the Aging (DFTA). Novauses cardio, comedy and cooking to create activ/ist audiences who, in turn, reveal and preserve stories of both people and places. Recent commissions have included multi-year social engagement projects such as Silver Sirens, an older adult cheerleading squad championing healthcare, gender equity, and anti-ageism; and Moving Stories, a senior-led storytelling and walking tour. Nova has shown her work at national and international venues, including the New Museum's IdeasCity Festival, the River to River Festival, the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Real Art Ways, Substation Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa and the National Arts Center in Tokyo, Japan. She is an Associate Professor of Creative Arts and Technology at Bloomfield College.

Nova's PAIR collaboration with the Department for the Aging (DFTA) is deepening the City's understanding of ageism and its impact on older New Yorkers. She is challenging societal misconceptions around age and discrimination embedded in language, social practices, policies, and institutions. Her creative solutions seek to help DFTA further its mission of eliminating ageism and ensuring the dignity and quality of life of NYC's diverse older adults, beginning with its own agency staff.

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Announces Four New Public Artists in Residence

Posted: April 5, 2019

"Artists as 'Creative Problem-Solvers' at City Agencies"

Published: The New York Times, April 5, 2019

"This Performance Invites You to Send Postcards to Older New Yorkers"

Published: Hyperallergic, October 18, 2019

Additional images and media are available on Twitter and Instagram

Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya

Commission on Human Rights (CCHR)

Born in Atlanta to Thai and Indonesian immigrants, Amanda studied neuroscience at Columbia and worked at an Alzheimer's research lab before becoming a full-time artist, educator, and activist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her explorations of feminism, science, and community have reclaimed space in museums and galleries, at protests and rallies, on buildings, highway tunnels, and subway corridors, as well as on the mainstage of two TED conferences. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Guardian, and on the cover of TIME magazine. In 2020-2021, she was the Public Artist in Residence with the NYC Commission on Human Rights and her work has since been acquired into the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum & the Library of Congress.

During her residency with the Commission on Human Rights, Amanda focused on the concept of "family," broadly defined. In response to the COVD19 pandemic and the rise in anti-Asian hate and discrimination, she created two large scale public works:

"I Still Believe in Our City"

"May We Know Our Own Strength"

New York Announces Latest Public Art Projects: "Artists Are Creative Problem Solvers."

Posted: August 27, 2020 by Forbes

'I Still Believe in Our City': A Public Art Series Takes On Racism

Published Nov. 2, 2020 by The New York Times

Social Design Collective and Christine Tinsley

Department of Veterans' Services (DVS)

Social Design Collective (SDC) and Christine Tinsley were in residence with the Department of Veteran's Services in 2015. Social Design Collective (SDC) is an art and design collaborative founded and led by Jules Rochielle Sievert. This residency was done in collaboration with artist and veteran Christine Tinsley. Sievert has navigated terrain between art, performance, social justice, collective art practice, and applied design for over 10 years. SDC uses a variety of art and outreach strategies to build community partnerships and networks that endure long after the artistic engagement ends.

Social Design Collective (SDC) worked with DVS to foster and engage a community of women veterans, a historically underserved population. During their year-long residency, SDC and Tinsley worked with The Harlem Vet Center to produce the first women veterans conference in New York City with over 200 participants, hosted a series of LGTBIQ-focused potlucks for veterans, and created an extensive network of veteran artist advocacy groups. Sievert led website and digital literacy classes to women veterans, and Tinsley photographed and interviewed NYC-based women veterans for her ongoing project SisterVet: Stories from Sisters, Sailors and Soldiers.

"Female Veterans to Collaborate with Artists in Harlem"

Published: November 8, 2015 by The Wall Street Journal

Alex Strada

NYC Department of Homeless Services (DHS)

Alex Strada is a multimedia artist and educator whose practice explores questions of collectivity, critical legal studies, and political transformation. Her projects are often produced collaboratively and center engagement with activists and scholars across fields. She has exhibited work at the Queens Museum, NYC; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA; Anthology Film Archives, NYC; UnionDocs, NYC; Socrates Sculpture Park, NYC; Museum of the Moving Image, NYC; MuseumsQuartier, Vienna; Listasafn Árnesinga Museum, Iceland; Kaunas Biennial, Lithuania; and the screens of Times Square with Times Square Arts’ Midnight Moment.

Alex will work alongside DHS as a Public Artist in Residence to help reframe how New Yorkers think about and understand the experience of homelessness and address the question, “Who are our clients? People, like you and me.” Going into her residency, Alex asks, “How do New York laws aid in preventing or perpetuating homelessness? I am specifically interested in exploring the hidden yet detrimental relationship between zoning and homelessness, and the ways that laws limiting formerly incarcerated people leads to housing insecurity. I plan to draw from social practice and participatory multimedia storytelling to help create coalitions, increase advocacy, and create a space for people to collectively reimagine how legal structures could be instituted to provide support and aid to those who need it most.”

Gioncarlo Valentine

NYC Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC)

Gioncarlo Valentine is an award-winning American photographer and writer from Baltimore City. Backed by his seven years of social work experience, his work seeks to examine issues faced by marginalized populations, most often focusing his lens on the experiences of Black/LGBTQIA+ communities. Through writing and photography, Gioncarlo aims to broaden conversations around masculinity culture, gender, and longing.

Gioncarlo will work as a Public Artist in Residence at OPHC to memorialize the unheard stories of New York City to reorient discussions on hate violence and serve as a bridge between communities. As a starting point, Gioncarlo asks, “How can we create a safer New York for Black transgender and gender non-conforming (GNC) folks? Black transgender and GNC people face steep and disproportionate violence and discrimination across the US. I’m interested in developing a creative approach, rooted in storytelling, that addresses the extensive needs and excessive neglect of Black transgender and GNC people in NYC. My hope is that through sharing these stories, in unique and confrontational ways, folks who feel a sense of prejudice or confusion around the realities faced by transgender and GNC people, will be moved to educate themselves and show up for this community.”

Andre D. Wagner

Commission on Human Rights (CCHR)

Andre D. Wagner is a photographer living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He explores and chronicles the poetic and lyrical nuances of daily life, using city streets, neighborhoods, parades, public transportation and the youth of the twenty first century as his visual language. He particularly centers Black people and their lived experience in New York City. His photographs have been commissioned by The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Cut, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, WSJ, Time Magazine and Vogue, among other publications. To learn more about Andre, visit https://andredwagner.com/

While embedded with the Human Rights Commission, Andre created the multi-platform project:

"You Do It With Your Heart"

You Do It With Your Heart highlights the economic power of Black New Yorkers and the cultural significance of Black-owned businesses, which have long been a cornerstone of New York City neighborhoods. In this new multimedia series, Black business owners share their backgrounds, and discuss how they have been affected by the economy, COVID-19, and growing gentrification. Their oral histories play over Andre's stunning images.

New York Announces Latest Public Art Projects: "Artists Are Creative Problem Solvers."

Posted: August 27, 2020 by Forbes

City Multimedia Series Celebrates Black Brooklyn Business Resilience

Published on April 5, 2021 by The Brooklyn Paper

Julia Weist

Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)

Julia Weist is currently in residence with the Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS). Since pursuing her MLIS degree, New York-based artist Julia Weist's artistic practice has centered around archives, collections, and information resources. She uses them to explore the relationship between media production and cultural context, and to understand how the velocity of information originates in its accessibility. Her work has recently been exhibited at the Queens Museum (New York City), the Hong-Gah Museum (Taipei), Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art (Rotterdam), the Shed (New York City) and the Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, South Korea) among other venues.

For her PAIR with DORIS, Weist is presenting New York City's Municipal Archives as a form of public space. To start, she is researching the municipal government's relationship to art and artists as documented in the city's Archives, looking particularly at records featuring criteria for evaluating art, surveillance of individual artists, and notes on artists' role in civic life. Weist will use these findings as the foundation for a series of photographic prints, and will then leverage the City's records retention procedures to ensure that these artworks become official government records and are made accessible in perpetuity. The public may view the works either by submitting a Freedom of Information request through NYC's Open Records Portal or by waiting until the physical prints have passed through the City's archiving process, into the publicly accessible collection of the Municipal Archives, which may take many years. In the end, Weist's project rethinks the possibilities of site by treating the conceptual and tangible space of "the public record" as a location for intervention and display.

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Announces Four New Public Artists in Residence

Posted: April 5, 2019

"Artists as 'Creative Problem-Solvers' at City Agencies"

Published: The New York Times, April 5, 2019

Janet Zweig

Mayor's Office of Sustainability (MOS)

Janet Zweig is a New York based artist working primarily in the public realm. She is currently in residence with the Mayor's Office of Sustainability (MOS). Nature and sustainability have played a critical part in her recent projects. These include working with a San Diego climate scientist to create a kinetic sculpture at a new library that visualizes climate change data and the vanishing of natural resources in a direct way for the community. She also worked with engineers to create a large-scale installation on the Sacramento River that orients viewers to drought and flood conditions. Her public works are installed around the country, and her sculpture and books have been shown widely. A Rome Prize recipient, she teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design.

In all of her work, Janet attempts to speak to viewers both as communities and as individuals, sometimes tapping into their talents and energy to develop content. At MOS, she is using these and other art strategies to support the office's efforts to convey to New Yorkers how they, personally and collectively, can make a positive difference in issues around sustainability. She hopes to use the opportunity to reach New Yorkers in a way that empowers them to drive change on a local level and understand the collective impact of their actions on a global level.

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Announces Four New Public Artists in Residence

Posted: April 5, 2019

"Artists as 'Creative Problem-Solvers' at City Agencies"

Published: The New York Times, April 5, 2019