Photo courtesy of Grimanesa Amoros Studio

It might be the last moth of summer already, but August has the largest variety of outdoor art installations yet this year (in our opinion), with many pushing the boundaries of public art, as the artists experiment with different mediums and new levels of viewer engagement. Rather than letting the viewer stand back and observe, many of these installations fulfill their purpose and demonstrate the artist’s vision not when viewers examine the piece, but engage directly with it, oftentimes through physical occupation and communal use of the artworks. Several installations utilize unique mediums like sound, household objects, lighting, and nature itself.

Read on to see our picks of this month’s must-see installations created by a diverse array of artists across the five boroughs of New York City.

1. Color Factory’s Interactive Exhibits


Manhattan Color Walk; Photo by Color Factory courtesy of Cooper Hewitt

Color Factory, an interactive exhibit highlighting the colors of New York, is coming to the Hudson Square neighborhood of SoHo on August 20th and will cover a whopping 20,000 square feet. In August 2017, Color Factory debuted in San Francisco to celebrate color and creativity. Now, it is here in New York, featuring a brand new color palette curated from the streets of the city in a series of site-specific installations that it hopes will connect New Yorkers to the “colorful moments” around the city and in their own daily lives.

Color Factory kicked off with the Manhattan Color Walk at the Cooper Hewitt Museum. The installation ended in July, but it set the stage for the rest of the Color Factory installations coming this month. The Manhattan Color Walk consisted of a path in the Cooper Hewitt Garden, painted with numerous stripes that correspond to specific moments encountered by Color Factory artists as they explored 265 streets in Manhattan, walking over 50 miles and selecting colors that prompt viewers to consider the role of color in defining a unique location.

Tickets are available here if you want to snag one before they’re sold out!