If you’ve been treating NYC street art as background — something you notice on the way to dinner — this is the spring to actually look up. The Public Art Fund just dropped a 2026 program of 35 commissioned artists turning the city’s parks, transit hubs, and beaches into what they’re calling an open-air museum. Brooklyn Bridge Park has a new long-term Woody De Othello installation. And the Bushwick Collective, which rotates roughly 60% of its murals every June at its annual block party, is six weeks out from its biggest refresh of the year. You HAVE to check this out before the city repaints itself.
Don’t Miss: The Public Art Fund’s 2026 Season Is the Most Ambitious Roster in Years
The Public Art Fund’s 2026 announcement covers 35 artists working across parks, transit hubs, and beaches throughout the five boroughs. The headline commission is the JFK Airport Terminal 6 program, where 19 internationally renowned artists — including Nina Chanel Abney and Barbara Kruger — are creating sculptures, wall installations, and mosaic and bronze floor medallions. The full Terminal 6 unveil rolls out as the new terminal phases open, but several of the artists’ studio progress images have already started circulating, and it’s clear this isn’t airport art in the decorative sense. It’s a serious museum-grade installation that millions of travelers a year will walk through whether they want to or not.
For the rest of the 2026 season, the Public Art Fund is working in parks, on the High Line, at transit hubs, and along the beaches. Worth checking publicartfund.org for the rolling exhibition calendar — most installations are free, public, and open every day the relevant park or transit hub is.
What’s Up Right Now: Brooklyn Bridge Park, Prospect Park, and the High Line
Woody De Othello’s Brooklyn Bridge Park installation went up May 5, 2026 and runs all the way through March 8, 2027 — meaning you’ve got ten months to see it, but no excuse not to walk down to the waterfront in the next few weeks while the weather is doing what it’s doing.
In Prospect Park, Risha Gorig’s The Journey is on view from April 20 through August 28, 2026, conceived as a metaphor for displacement caused by climate change and land loss. Gorig’s piece is the kind of public art that benefits from a slow, attentive walk-by rather than a quick photo — give it ten minutes if you can.
The High Line continues to operate one of the strongest public art programs in the country. Their spring 2026 commissions are still up across the elevated park’s full length, and walking the High Line south to north takes you through three or four of them without trying. Free, every day, dawn to dusk.
Bushwick Collective: The Window Before the Refresh
Founded in 2012 by Joseph Ficalora to beautify Bushwick’s industrial blocks, the Bushwick Collective is now one of the most internationally recognized open-air mural districts in the country. Roughly 25-plus large-scale murals are visible at any given time, centered around St. Nicholas Avenue and Troutman Street and extending outward.
Here’s the thing to know: the murals are temporary by design. Each one lasts about 12 months on average before being replaced, and roughly 60% of the entire collection rotates at the annual Bushwick Collective Block Party held on a Saturday in June. That means right now — early May — you’re looking at the version of the Collective that’s about to disappear. If there’s a piece you’ve meant to photograph, do it in the next four weeks. The Block Party itself is free and worth attending if you want to watch artists paint live and meet some of the international roster who travel in for it.
Getting there: L train to Jefferson Street. Walk south on Wyckoff, east on Troutman, and let yourself wander. The mural density gets denser the more you explore, and a self-guided walk takes anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours depending on how often you stop.
Welling Court in Astoria: The Quieter Sister Project
If Bushwick is the Collective everyone knows, Welling Court in Astoria, Queens is the one fewer tourists make it to. The Welling Court Mural Project covers about a four-block radius near 30th Avenue and 12th Street, and the murals here tend to be more politically pointed and locally rooted than Bushwick’s more international roster. Take the N or W to 30th Avenue and walk west toward the river. Add it to your list if you’ve already done Bushwick three times.
Brownsville’s 150-Foot King and Other Standouts Across the Boroughs
The Brownsville mural that’s been getting the most attention lately stretches roughly 150 feet along an exterior wall and depicts a king-figure portrait that anchors the surrounding block. It’s the kind of single-piece destination that justifies a subway ride on its own. The 3 train to Saratoga Avenue gets you within a short walk.
Across the East River, Park Avenue’s rolling sculpture program continues to host large-scale work that comes and goes throughout the year. The current installation cycle has been called “Fragile Giants” by some local critics — outsized sculptural figures that feel both monumental and improbably delicate. Walk Park between roughly 50th and 70th to see the current rotation.
How to Build a Walking Day
If you want to do this right, give yourself a Saturday. Start in Astoria at Welling Court (mid-morning, before the crowds hit Bushwick), then take the N to Times Square and the L into Jefferson Street for Bushwick. Eat in Bushwick — the surrounding neighborhood has caught up to the murals in food quality, and you’ll need fuel for the walk. Then either stay east and ride the L back to Brooklyn Bridge Park for Woody De Othello, or jump on the G and head into Prospect Park for Risha Gorig.
That’s a full day, every piece is free, and you’ll see more high-quality public art than most U.S. cities offer in a year. NYC isn’t subtle about being the cultural capital of the world — but its street art is the part that you have to walk to see. Go walk.
