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FLUSHING MEADOWS-Corona Park in Queens is set to receive its first public art paid for by the city's Percent For Art Program. The four works, part of an ongoing, $80-million park renovation, comprise the largest such installation ever at a city park.
Because the city Parks Department has suffered deep cuts in its budget in recent years, funding for some of the planned renovation exists only on paper. But city and private foundations are taking the unusual step of raising private funds for one of the projects, confident that Flushing Meadows can evolve into a first-rate art park.
"These installations are purposeful," said Adrian Benepe, the department's director of art and antiquities. "We hope that, ultimately, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park becomes as important to artists as Socrates Sculpture Park or the Storm King Art Center."
The four sites where artists are working are scattered throughout the 1,255-acre park - which is filled with many flat, open spaces and institutions as diverse as Shea Stadium and the Queens Museum. Sculptor Jacqueline Ferrara has designed colorful brickwork and landscaping for the Flushing Bay Promenade. Multimedia and performance artist Matt Mullican has designed granite etchings for the core area of the park, around the Unisphere. Painter Cynthia Carlson is still planning her project for the Ederle Amphitheater and Pool, and a fourth artist is being chosen to install artwork at the Hall of Science.
The city's 7-year-old Percent For Art program sets aside 1 percent of the construction costs for...