For ⟶ forever...
On view at 20 Times Square (47th St & 7th Ave); MTA digital displays; the Queens Museum facade.
Read Ukeles' full Artist's Statement
Times Square Arts, the Queens Museum, and MTA Arts & Design are pleased to announce their collaboration on a new public art initiative by artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, on view on the large-scale digital billboard at 20 Times Square, on the facade of the Queens Museum facing Grand Central Parkway, and across digital displays throughout the MTA subway and rail system.
For ⟶ forever... is both a response to the pandemic and a continuation of Ukeles’ long-standing dedication to honoring the unending labor of New York City’s public service workers through her artistic practice.
The artist’s public message, which reads
Dear Service Worker
“Thank you for keeping NYC alive!”
For ⟶ forever...
is a gesture of gratitude via a direct address to New York City’s public service employees, in particular infrastructure workers - including sanitation and transit workers - who are sustaining the city through the COVID-19 pandemic. The message, written in the artist’s hand, is framed by the vibrant colors of safety green and emergency red/orange. The resounding message is viewable throughout a network of locations designed to reach our city’s public service workers - from transit and sanitation workers in Times Square to essential workers continuing their daily commute. Many of these workers travel to and from Queens, one of the boroughs hardest hit by the pandemic. For ⟶ forever... aims to commemorate the efforts and undertakings of public service workers, specifically during the last few months.
In partnership with OUTFRONT Media, Ukeles' artwork appears on over 2,000 digital displays throughout the subway and rail digital network; the very locations where service workers pass through each day. At the same time, For ⟶ forever... appears every 15 minutes on the large scale digital billboard of 20 Times Square, rising 120 feet over the plazas of Times Square, which is now seeing an average of nearly 90,000 visitors each day. The Queens Museum is proud to share that Ukeles’ work will fully occupy the museum’s 200-foot-long glass façade for a year, where it can be seen by many thousands of drivers on Grand Central Parkway each day.
Ukeles, a pioneer in the field of socially engaged art, is most known for her practice focusing on maintenance and sanitation workers. One of her most notable projects is Touch Sanitation (1979-1980), in which she shook hands with all 8,500 employees of the New York Sanitation Department along their routes and places of work, saying to each worker, face to face: “Thank you for keeping NYC alive!” During this year-long project, Ukeles traveled to all of the city’s 59 DSNY districts in a spiraling itinerary she called “Ten Sweeps,” repeating the ritual of shaking hands and saying “thank you” thousands of times throughout an 11-month period. “Now,” says Ukeles, “four decades later, in the midst of this horrific pandemic, my statement becomes newly relevant to the city's infrastructure service workers, who are physically out there working every day to make sure our city remains a living entity.”
Since 1977, Ukeles has been the official, unsalaried artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation and has created pieces that encompass the infinite maintenance work that keeps New York City functioning, such as urban waste flows, recycling, ecology, urban sustainability and our power to transform degraded land and water into healthy inhabitable public places. Mierle Laderman Ukeles is represented by Ronald Feldman Gallery, NYC.
For ⟶ forever...’s presentation at the Queens Museum is made possible with the support of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, and at 20 Times Square thanks to Maefield Development. Special thanks to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and Panny Chayapumh for her design work across the three sites.
ABOUT MIERLE LADERMAN UKELES
Mierle Laderman Ukeles is a pioneer in the field of socially engaged art, most known for her practice focusing on maintenance and sanitation workers. One of her most notable projects is Touch Sanitation (1979-1980), in which she shook hands with all 8,500 employees of the New York Sanitation Department along their routes and places of work, saying to each worker, face to face: “Thank you for keeping NYC alive!” During this year-long project, Ukeles traveled to all of the city’s 59 DSNY districts in a spiraling itinerary she called “Ten Sweeps,” repeating the ritual of shaking hands and saying “thank you” thousands of times throughout an 11-month period.
Since 1977, Ukeles has been the official, unsalaried artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation and has created pieces that encompass the infinite maintenance work that keeps New York City functioning, such as urban waste flows, recycling, ecology, urban sustainability and our power to transform degraded land and water into healthy inhabitable public places. Mierle Laderman Ukeles is represented by Ronald Feldman Gallery, NYC.
ABOUT THE QUEENS MUSEUM
The Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Corona Park features contemporary art, events of hyperlocal and international impact, and educational programs reflecting the diversity of Queens and New York City. Changing exhibitions present the work of emerging and established artists, both local and global, that often explore contemporary social issues, as well as the rich history of its site. The Museum works outside its walls through engagement initiatives ranging from multilingual outreach and educational opportunities for adult immigrants, to a plethora of community led art and activism projects. The Queens Museum is located on property owned in full by the City of New York, and its operation is made possible in part by public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Major funding for the Queens Museum is generously provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the Lambent Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Bank of America.
ABOUT MTA ARTS & DESIGN
MTA Arts & Design encourages the use of public transportation by providing visual and performing arts in the metropolitan New York area. The Percent for Art program is one of the largest and most diverse collections of site-specific public art in the world, with more than 325 commissions by world-famous, mid-career and emerging artists. Arts & Design produces Graphic Arts, Digital Art, photographic Lighbox exhibitions, as well as live musical performances in stations through its Music Under New York (MUSIC) program, and the Poetry in Motion program in collaboration with the Poetry Society of America. It serves the more than eight million people who ride MTA subways and commuter trains daily and strives to create meaningful connections between sites, neighborhoods, and people. For more information, please visit mta.info/art or follow #mtaarts.
ABOUT 20 TIMES SQUARE AND MAEFIELD DEVELOPMENT
For more than a decade, Mark Siffin, CEO of Maefield Development, which owns 20 Times Square, has delivered passionate support for the Times Square community and the Alliance. As a life-long artist himself, Siffin consistently embraces the importance of young artists being presented to the 127MM-person pedestrian audience that Times Square delivers every year. 20 Times Square is at the epicenter of this activity and serves as the show case stage in our daily celebration of our shared humanity.