public work artist commissions to activate the space under and adjacent to the elevated A train station at Beach 60th Street in Far Rockaway (Queens), New York
This exciting initiative will use art and creative placemaking as catalysts to temporarily transform and animate this fragmented and underutilized roadway into a vibrant and active public space. RISE hopes to inspire the community to reimagine the potential of Rockaway Freeway to reconnect the peninsula and serve as an adaptable civic space.
Project Background
Located below the elevated A-line subway tracks, the five-mile long Rockaway Freeway currently acts as a de facto community corridor for pedestrians and bicyclists. As part of our Project Underway Initiative, RISE has been working since 2012, in partnership with residents, local stakeholders, NYC DOT and HPD, to reenvision this much needed, yet underperforming and dangerous, underpass into a safe and inviting public space that has the potential to serve as an important cross-peninsula connection for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Artists interested in applying for the commission should review the RFP below for details.
Proposals must be submitted to Alana Danieu, RISE Community Program Coordinator, at adanieu@riserockaway.org by Monday, May 1, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. (EDT). Selected artists will be notified in May.
Art Under the Elevated artist commissions are made possible through funding from the National Endowment for the Arts' (NEA) ArtWorks Program, and the Surdna Foundation/Hester St's Radical Imagination for Racial Justice Initiative.