Flushing Meadows Corona Park has become one of NYC’s best free outdoor art destinations without most people noticing. Through the “Art in the Parks” grant program — now in its seventh year — the Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park funds two site-responsive sculptures every year, placed in under-visited corners of the park. The result is a rotating collection of public art you can wander through any day, no tickets or registration required.

Current installations (2025-2026 cycle):

  • “Visitors Emerging from an Inconveniently Placed Portal” by Dakota Gearhart — Large aluminum photo sculptures of Queens bugs (moths, beetles, the ones you find in your kitchen) wearing party hats. Each insect has a cutout where you can insert your head for a photo, like a carnival standee but with actual artistic intent. Also includes augmented reality features linking to info about each species.
  • “Orogeny” by Queens Lighting Collective — A geological core-sample installation exploring the park’s history as the “valley of ashes” from The Great Gatsby. Made from translucent and refractive materials, the piece visualizes the park’s layers of history: the Corona Ash Heap, the World’s Fairs, the parking lots, the playgrounds.

Past installations that may still be on view:

  • Sherwin Banfield’s bronze sculpture of Queens-born LL Cool J on a digital music platform
  • Haksul Lee’s “The Giving Tree” — a sculpture made of recycled materials with an integrated wind turbine
  • Julia Sinelnikova’s “Light Portal” — a solar-panel reinterpretation of Philip Johnson’s Tent of Tomorrow
  • Drew Seskunas’ “What is the Opposite of a Black Hole?” — a radiant sculpture honoring Queens scientists
  • Annalisa Iadicicco’s “Bumperman” — a superhero assembled from recycled car bumpers, a tribute to Willets Point’s auto-repair community

The 2026-2027 installations go up in October — new work, same free access. The locations are deliberately spread across the park’s edges (Meadow Lake, the entrance plazas, David Dinkins Circle), so exploring them makes for a good full-day walk.

If you’ve only been to Flushing Meadows for the Unisphere or the US Open, the art trail is a reason to go back and see the park differently.