Socrates Sculpture Park is a testament to inventive urban reclamation and revitalization.
“Socrates Sculpture Park was an abandoned riverside landfill and illegal dumpsite until 1986 when a coalition of artists and community members, under the leadership of artist Mark di Suvero, transformed it into an open studio and exhibition space for artists and a neighborhood park for local residents”.
While it may not be the nation's most impressive park, it's a wonderful use of a once dismal plot of land and it also features workshops, great views of the city, and ever changing exhibitions. The city can only wish more projects like this set up in other areas.
The current sculpture exhibition is called State Fair and features some stuff I liked (my favorites were an unusual piece by Dana Sherwood and the Black Forrest Fancies and the huge metal barn by Bernard Williams) and some I didn't (for lack of a better word I found the Big Apple Show Down by Risa Puno – a put put golf caliber obstacle course with feat like “No Reservation Rally” to be dumb, and ditto for unnecessary inclusion of the word “herstory” on the otherwise fine Jeanine Oleson piece).
But hey, to each his own, and over all it's just a nice place to get some sun, take in the fragrance of the many flowers planted there, and scope out lots of strange individuals that seem particularly attracted to the park.
But what do you think?