Doris C. Freedman Plaza (Southeast entrance to Central Park – East 60th St. and Fifth Avenue)
The plaza at the southeastern entrance to the Park is home to a program of temporary exhibitions of sculpture organized by the Public Art Fund. The seasonal installations are the legacy of arts activist and administrator Doris C. Freedman (1928–1981) who founded the Public Art Fund in 1977.
In 1981, Mayor Ed Koch dedicated the plaza to Freedman who died earlier that year at the age of 53. As the first director of the Public Art Fund, Freedman sought to make art accessible beyond museums and galleries and to create more opportunities for New Yorkers to experience art in their everyday environment. Located at a major entrance to the Park and in a busy part of Midtown, the Plaza is a prominent location for encounters with new art. Its proximity to Grand Army Plaza, home to the monument to William Tecumseh Sherman and the Pulitzer Fountain, both installed in the early 20th century, creates a playful juxtaposition of past and present ideas of public art.
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