“I make art to transform systems of power. ‘Public Address’ emerges from years of sustained listening, working closely with people experiencing homelessness and frontline shelter staff across the boroughs. ... Record-level homelessness demands new tools and calls on every New Yorker to engage.” —
@_Alex_Strada
Artist Alex Strada’s “Public Address” - now on view in Brooklyn - is a long-term, multiborough, and socially engaged installation that centers the lived experiences of housing insecurity. Created through Strada’s work with the NYC Department of Homeless Services through
@NYCulture ’s the Public Artists in Residence (#PAIRnyc) program, the project seeks to destigmatize homelessness by amplifying the voices of people living in city shelters and frontline shelter staff through platforming their handwritten and drawn reflections onto official city signage, fabricated by the Department of Transportation.
In addition to the main installation, individual signs have been installed throughout every community district in Brooklyn—extending the project’s reach across the borough. After debuting last October in Manhattan’s Lt. Petrosino Square, “Public Address” moved to Downtown Brooklyn’s Columbus Park last month. The individual signs posted in communities across Manhattan will remain in place, so that the project leaves a lasting imprint on each borough as it moves across the city.
Bringing together several City agencies—Department of Parks and Recreation (
@NYCParks ), Department of Cultural Affairs (
@NYCulture ), Department of Homeless Services (
@NYCDHS ), and Department of Transportation (
@NYC_DOT and
@NYC_DOTArt )—with Storefront for Art and Architecture (
@StorefrontNYC ), “Public Address” exemplifies how artistic practice can tangibly respond to complex issues like homelessness and confront the shifting terrain of civic life.
“Public Address” is on view in Columbus Park through summer 2026.
#NYCulture #PublicArt #NYC
📷: Photos by Michael Oliver.
