Seward Park Library Gets its New ‘Constellation’ Sculpture

The gated pathway in front of Seward Park Library – what was once part of Jefferson Street – now boasts some public artwork. Dubbed “Constellation,” the wooden seating arrangement is the first cycle of artwork by Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong for the year-long project. It was installed at the end of last week.

The new sculpture is one of ten such “Art in the Parks” installations around the city, sponsored by UNIQLO and the Parks Department. Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong won the $10,000 grant to impart “Constellation” to the “underused” plaza outside the New York Public Library branch on East Broadway. It’ll hold court until June 2018.

Constellation is an architectural sculpture, performance, and panel series that will activate the underused plaza in Seward Park as a transformative community public space. The site-specific sculptural pavilion will be composed of interlocked wooden modules that will be re-arranged and transformed seasonally in three different configurations over the course of the exhibition.

To mark the occasion, the Seward Park Conservancy hosted an event beside the sculpture this past Saturday that included a panel of speakers discussing the library building, as well as “tracing the history of the Lower East Side/Chinatown area and the history of Seward Park as the first municipally built playground.”