'Public Address' by Public Artist in Residence (PAIR) Alex Strada Moves to Brooklyn as Part of a Citywide Public Art Project Centering Homelessness in NYC

For Immediate Release : March 31, 2026

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"PUBLIC ADDRESS" BY ARTIST ALEX STRADA MOVES FROM MANHATTAN TO BROOKLYN AS PART OF A CITYWIDE PUBLIC ART PROJECT CENTERING HOMELESSNESS IN NYC

"Public Address" is an extension of Strada's work as the Public Artist in Residence with the NYC Department of Homeless Services and Department of Cultural Affairs

"Public Address" by Alex Strada in Downtown Brooklyn. Photo by Michael Oliver.

Additional images of "Public Address" in Downtown Brooklyn are available here . All photos are by Michael Oliver.

NEW YORK, NY- NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), NYC Department of Homeless Services (DHS), and Storefront for Art & Architecture arepleased to announce that Public Address 's main installation has moved to Brooklyn's Columbus Park, where it will be on view through summer 2026. First presented in Manhattan's Lt. Petrosino Square in October 2025, this public artwork is a long-term, multiborough, and socially engaged installationby artist Alex Strada that centers the lived experiences of housing insecurity. 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 NYC Department of Transportation. In addition to the installation in Columbus Park, individual signs will be installed throughout every community district in Brooklyn-extending the installation's reach across the borough. The signs installed

"I make art to transform systems of power," says artist Alex Strada. "Public Address emerges from years of sustained listening, working closely with people experiencing homelessness and frontline shelter staff across the boroughs. I heard many frustrations around how homelessness is ignored and misperceived. Through the 'log-writing' workshops and anonymous reflections now displayed through the subversion of city signage, those most impacted can safely speak directly to the public, something that otherwise might not be possible with the increased criminalization of homelessness and migration. Record-level homelessness demands new tools and calls on every New Yorker to engage."

"As our Public Artist in Residence with the Department of Homeless Services, Alex Strada created 'Public Address' to render the diffuse and singular ways that people experience homelessness in our city as a powerful, tangible public art installation," said DCLAAssistant Commissioner for Public Art Kendal Henry. "Strada collaborated with the people living in shelters and frontline public servants on this extraordinary work, which invites us all to enter the perspective of her project collaborators. In the process, 'Public Address' creates opportunities for greater empathy and understanding, de-stigmatizing homelessness and helping to shrink the distance that too often separates us from our neighbors."

"By centering the voices and lived experience of people experiencing homelessness, Alex Strada highlights perspectives that are all too often ignored and emphasizes the shared humanity and reality of all New Yorkers," said DSS Commissioner Erin Dalton. "As someone new to the city, but not this work, it is incredible to see organizations come together to support a project that so thoughtfully approaches the challenges experienced by those we serve. As the project moves to its next location, I look forward to seeing a new community meaningfully engage with this artwork and their perception of homelessness in New York City."

"Forty years after Storefront's Homeless at Home confronted New York's housing crisis, Alex Strada's 'Public Address'carries its legacy forward, showing how collective artistic action can center the voices of those most impacted by housing insecurity, an issue that remains among the city's most urgent and unresolved concerns," says Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa, Deputy Director and Curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture.

New York City remains the only municipality in the United States to guarantee the right to shelter, a commitment established through decades of advocacy and litigation. Public Address allows those most impacted to speak directly to the public, emphasizing access to temporary shelter as a basic right while exposing the limits of such a provision in addressing deeper crises of affordability, displacement, and care.

"Public Address" builds on over three years of collaborative "log-writing" workshops Strada has led in dozens of shelters across the city as part of her work as Public Artist in Residence with DHS and DCLA. Logs typically serve as an internal form of record-keeping in the shelter system. In Public Address, they instead become platforms for public testimony and personal expression.Over 300 shelter residents and staff have contributed hand-written and drawn logs exploring issues related to navigating the shelter system, housing advocacy, migration, the role of caregiving and other themes. These responses are printed onto upcycled aluminum street signs fabricated in the Department of Transportation's Sign Shop, the same facility that makes all municipal signs for New York City. Transforming the bureaucratic tool of the logbook and the language of official city infrastructure into works of art, these signs amplify voices that too often go unheard. Strada designed the installations to facilitate listening, dialogue, and respite in a city where public space is increasingly privatized.

The new larger-scale Brooklyn iteration, installed in collaboration with NYC Parks' Art in the Parks program, integrates new log entries in conversation with the surrounding civic landscape, including Brooklyn Borough Hall. One small sign per community district in Brooklyn will be affixed to lampposts, prompting passersby to pause and engage. Through mapping with open data, Strada identified disparities where homeless shelters are located. Depending on the location, the signs challenge stereotypes and misperceptions around homelessness, migration, and NIMBYism. All of the small signs will remain on view as the project travels across the city.

Following the Brooklyn installation, "Public Address"will continue to grow and be presented in NYC parks in Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Strada will continue to host "log writing" sessions in shelters, continuously adding new responses. "Public Address" is being realized in partnership with Commonpoint Queens, allowing people in their construction job program, many of whom live in shelters, to be hired and paid to install and deinstall the work. The installation is activated by public programs, such as The Right to the City: Homelessness and Advocacywith Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Jennifer Egan and Will Watts of Coalition for the Homeless and Homes for People, Not for Profit with Art Against Displacement, with more programming scheduled for Brooklyn in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library.

Bringing together disparate city agencies-Parks, Cultural Affairs, Homeless Services, Transportation, and NYC DOT Art-with Storefront for Art and Architecture, "Public Address"exemplifies how artistic practice can tangibly respond to complex issues like homelessness and confront the shifting terrain of civic life.

The project is the first in a series by Storefront for Art & Architecture, titled Public Works, of off-site commissions by artists Alex Strada, David L. Johnson, and Rose Salane, whose work each engages with the erosion-and reinvention-of civic infrastructures in New York City. These projects will examine how the vulnerability of public institutions and non-governmental organizations that have traditionally served as mediators in civic life can open a space for artists to engage and address, providing both critique and alternatives to systemic shortcomings.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Alex Strada is an artist and educator based in New York City. Through a research-based approach grounded in transdisciplinary collaboration and public engagement, her projects reimagine systems of power and create platforms for collectivity, civic agency, and political transformation. Recent solo exhibitions include the Queens Museum, NYC; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Aldrich Contemporary Museum of Art, CT; Times Square Arts, NYC; and Project Row Houses, Houston. Strada has received grants from the Graham Foundation, Artadia, NYFA, NYSCA, Rema Hort Mann Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Her work has been featured in the New Yorker, BOMB, New York Times, Hyperallergic, and on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show. Strada holds an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from Columbia University and is an alumnus of the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program. She is a Fine Arts faculty at the Pratt Institute.

ABOUT THE NYC DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is dedicated to supporting and strengthening New York City's vibrant cultural life. DCLA works to promote and advocate for quality arts programming and to articulate the contribution made by the cultural community to the City's vitality. The Department represents and serves nonprofit cultural organizations involved in the visual, literary, and performing arts; public-oriented science and humanities institutions including zoos, botanical gardens, and historic and preservation societies; and creative artists at all skill levels who live and work within the City's five boroughs. DCLA also provides donated materials for arts programs offered by the public schools and cultural and social service groups, and commissions permanent works of public art at City-funded construction projects throughout the five boroughs. For more information visit www.nyc.gov/culture.

ABOUT THE NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES

DSS, comprised of the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) and the Human Resources Administration (HRA), serves millions of New Yorkers annually through a broad range of services that aim to address poverty and prevent homelessness. DHS oversees a broad network of shelters, re-housing solutions, and outreach programs designed to help New Yorkers experiencing homelessness get back on their feet. HRA serves over three million New Yorkers through the administration of more than 15 major public assistance programs. DSS is central to the City's mission to expand opportunity for New Yorkers in need, address housing insecurity, and ensure that low-income New Yorkers receive the benefits and assistance for which they may be eligible.

ABOUT STOREFRONT FOR ART & ARCHITECTURE

Storefront for Art and Architecture amplifies the understanding of the built environment through artistic practice. Founded in 1982 by artists and architects in downtown New York, Storefront has chronicled the changing urban landscape of the city over the years and remains committed to producing and presenting work about diverse notions of place and public life.