New York City’s Public Art Fund celebrates its 40th anniversary this year with a series of new commissions, beginning this week with Commercial Break, which continues through March 6^th. The digital works—by 20 international artists, including Cory Arcangel, Awol Erizku and Casey Jane Ellison—will be shown across all five boroughs of New York City, at sites such as the Barclays Center oculus and thousands of LinkNYC kiosks. In addition, an advertising disruptor has been placed in Times Square, near the original exhibition screen that presented Messages to the Public, which ran from 1982 to 2000. They will also be displayed online via the fund’s website About the works Tonight at 6:30, a Public Art Fund Talk at The New School presents four of the artists in conversation with the curators. Info

The Public Art Fund was founded in 1977 by Doris Freedman (1928-1981), a champion of public art who served as New York City's first Director of Cultural Affairs, President of the Municipal Art Society of New York, and was a tireless supporter of New York City's Percent for Art legislation.

Under her leadership, the organization developed programs to explore the potential for art to become an integral aspect of urban public spaces. Since its inception, Public Art Fund has presented more than four hundred artists' exhibitions and projects at sites throughout New York City’s five boroughs, making it possible for artists to engage diverse audiences and, along the way, redefine public art in relation to the changing nature of contemporary art.

Nicholas Baume, the director and chief curator of the fund, says that the aim of the year of exhibitions is to “reflect on Doris C. Freedman’s vision to bring art outside the traditional gallery space and into the context of the city, enabling the most diverse audiences to engage with great contemporary works of art”.  Commissions by the US artist Liz Glynn, the British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor and the Estonian artist Katja Novitskova are due to follow in the spring and summer.

Tonight at 6:30, a Public Art Fund Talk at The New School presents artists Meriem Bennani, Mary Reid Kelley, Patrick Kelley, and Hannah Whitaker in a conversation moderated by Public Art Fund’s Associate Curators Emma Enderby and Daniel S. Palmer, focusing on the intersection between art and advertising.  The New School, 12^th Street Auditorium, 66 West 12^th Street, NY, NY. Tickets Free/$10

Above: © Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, Crete Meat, 2016. Edited from Swinburne’s Pasiphae, 2014 HD video, no sound. Courtesy the artists, Pilar Corrias Gallery, and Fredericks & Freiser. One of the 20+ new and adapted works that will be featured in Commercial Break.