You can’t stop art from happening in New York City. From architecture, to street art, hidden art galleries and more you’ll find both up-and-coming names and legendary artists on New York City streets. The Financial District is home to some of the oldest and most famous pieces of art. With so many options, come along on Platinum Properties walking art tour of the Financial District and discover hidden art in the streets of FiDi.
Come and explore City Hall Park with us, a great place to sit and gaze at the fountain, old school oil lit lanterns, governmental and financial buildings while having lunch. City Hall Park is also a public art fund site, which features rotating exhibitions all throughout the park all year round.
Walking a few blocks south, tucked away in a FiDi alleyway was a secret art gallery, the name simple: Museum and its location, located in a freight elevator. Museum, on Cortlandt Alley between Franklin and White Streets official hours open are only on the weekends, but the truth is you can see everything through the windows 24/7. And when we say everything we mean everything, Museum curates and exhibits contemporary artifacts giving us a look into the weird things you may find on NYC streets.
Making our way over to Broadway, we spotted the Red Cube at 140 Broadway by Isamu Noguchi, a great mixture of architecture and art. The cube is made up of distorted diagonals, and a cylinder in the center of the cube that showcases the building behind it.
Walking southeast, at One Chase Manhattan Plaza at William and Pine Street we bumped into the whimsical Group of Four Trees sculpture commissioned by Rockefeller himself in 1969. Jean Dubuffet created the sculpture to be placed in front of the Chase Manhattan Building. The playful, childlike sculpture gave us a breathe of fresh air before entering the more serious financial institution.
Headed south towards the ferry, we bet you’ve never really stopped to look at the iconic Charging Bull as street art, but that’s exactly what the 7,100LB bronze bull is, street art. The sculpture which sits near Bowling Green was originally an act of guerilla street art after the 1987 stock market crash. Artist, Arturo Di Modica meant for this bull to represent strength and power of the American people at the time. Di Modica left the sculpture on Wall Street in 1989 and police seized the bull into impound. After public protest and uproar, it was installed in its current location at Bowling Green and since then it has become an iconic tourist site.
As we made it closer to the ferry, a few blocks from Bowling Green, at 17 State Street we ran into two pieces of work by contemporary artist, Keith Haring that not only brightened our mood but also the day.
If you’re searching for more art, here are 2 art galleries you can check out in the Financial District:
World Trade Gallery
120 Broadway
3LD Art & Technology Center
80 Greenwich Street
