Public Art

Torkwase Dyson’s Akua is a large, open pavilion with an immersive multi-channel soundscape. Visitors may enter and experience recorded sounds moving across eight speakers, including layered conversations from Black archives, nature field recordings, and electronic sounds. For Dyson (b. 1973, Chicago), sound is a physical vibration that can connect our bodies to our surroundings. The title Akua is inspired by the name of a family member; Akua means “born on Wednesday” in West African Akan tradition.

Dyson’s multilayered sonic composition explores the idea of “breath as geography.” The artist proposes that the spaces between words — subtle breaths, ums, pauses — can carry memories of specific places. She asks, “what can the space between words and silence tell us about land, water, infrastructure, and migration?” Surrounded by grand waterways and architectural landmarks, Akua invites audiences into a space of contemplation and imagination, grounded in the landscape beneath and encircling us.

Torkwase Dyson: Akua is curated by Public Art Fund Senior Curator Melanie Kress with Assistant Curator Jenée-Daria Strand.

Torkwase Dyson Akua, 2025
Powder-coated steel and aluminum, 8-channel sound
Courtesy of the artist, Pace Gallery, and GRAY Chicago | New York
Photo: Nicholas Knight, courtesy Public Art Fund, NY. Presented by Public Art Fund at Brooklyn Bridge Park, May 6, 2025 – Mar 8, 2026.

The Stories of Us curate sculptures from 15 incredible artists, who share their stories and genius as an invitation for us all to explore our shared past and present, and reimagine the future we can create together.

On display at Emily Warren Roebling Plaza from April 26 through May 26, 2025.

Dreaming with the Archives is a public art exhibition that transforms Brooklyn Bridge Park into a canvas for radical imagination through augmented reality (AR). This groundbreaking exhibition invites visitors to experience digital monuments to Brooklyn’s layered histories — that exist atop and surrounding the park — while engaging with the current landscape and inspiring futures re-dreamed. 

As you move through the Park, your mobile device becomes a portal through which to encounter immersive augmented reality monuments created by visionary artists Ari Melenciano, Olalekan Jeyifous, Kiyan Williams, and Jeremiah Ojo. Each of the artists created site-specific artworks to honor the native flora, agriculture, skilled laborers, — enslaved and free — and the sounds that make up the rich cultural history and ecology of Brooklyn. The exhibition also features Hank Willis Thomas’s renowned “All Power to All the People” and Wangechi Mutu’s captivating “Bibi Bahari,” two monumental works that emerge from the East River to distinctly celebrate African diasporic culture.

Dreaming with the Archives invites us all to imagine new futures for our public spaces — futures grounded in our shared pasts and radical possibility. Juneteenth 2025 marks the opening of a portal in public space for NYC to engage with our dreams of liberation and the stories powering our collective memory, through the Summer. 

Presented in collaboration with the Brooklyn Bridge Park, this exhibition marks the inaugural moment of Kinfolk Tech’s year-long, multi-city initiative, Dreaming with the Archives, activating imaginations and preserving stories of place through art and technology across NYC, New Orleans, and Philadelphia.

On display June 19 – August 30, 2025
Check back for details and app access!

On permanent display atop 334 Furman Street is Tom Fruin’s Watertower. See this amazing installation from the Pier 5 Uplands and near Pier 5 in the Park, or from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

There is no public access to the installation or the roof of the building.