Applications open to Queens artists for annual Art in the Parks competition

Artists can now apply for the third annual “Art in the Parks: Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park Grant” competition, with a theme of “Looking Back, Looking Forward.”

The Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, in partnership with NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program, recently opened the applications in February. Two Queens-based artists will each be awarded $5,000 to create and install their proposed temporary artwork at designated locations within Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

Early- to mid-career artists are encouraged to apply and to consider site-specific plans, as well as related programming and community engagement for their projects. Possible locations include but aren’t limited to Meridian Road and Meadow Lake Road – West Entrance, Roosevelt Avenue Entrance, 111^th Street at 49^th Avenue Entrance, College Point Boulevard and 58^th Road Entrance, Corona Avenue and Horace Harding Expressway Entrance, Lawns around Meadow Lake, among others.

Grant recipients will be selected through an open application process and chosen by a committee of arts professionals and Queens community members, as well as NYC Parks and Alliance representatives.

Proposals will be judged according to artistic and creative merit, response to the surrounding community, the theme of “Looking Back, Looking Forward,” and suitability to the site.

“Now in its third year, the Art in the Parks: Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park Grants celebrate the park’s global heritage while supporting local talent,” Alliance Executive Director Janice Melnick said. “The locations we’ve selected expand the reach of the park’s cultural activities to include entrances, lake areas and historic sites. In this way, every surrounding neighborhood becomes the heart of the park.”

Previous winners include Jeannine Han and Dan Riley for “Another way it could go,” which celebrated connections between local and universal communities in 2020; and Karl Orozco for “Hospicio Cabañas (Playable Stage for Thunder Hawk),” which interpreted Mexican archetypes, traditional dance and a Mexican video game hero into art and performance on site in 2019.

Karl Orozco’s “Hospicio Cabañas (Playable Stage for Thunder Hawk)” art installation and event in 2019. (Photo courtesy of NYC Parks)

The deadline for submissions is Sunday, March 28. Grant recipients will be announced in April 2021, and artworks will be installed in the park for one year starting this summer.

For more information or to apply, visit nycgovparks.org.