Collective Bloom

New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) has reimagined its streets as spaces for joy, movement, and community with the most expansive iteration of its Summer Streets initiative to date. For the first time, over 22 miles of car-free roads stretched across all five boroughs, including a historic uninterrupted route from the Brooklyn Bridge to Inwood in Manhattan. At the heart of this transformation was a desire to reclaim public space for people - to invite New Yorkers out of their buildings, cars, and routines, and into a shared, open-air celebration of city life. 

Developed in collaboration with New York-based Crozier and Maker’s Hub, Collective Bloom invites passersby to engage physically and creatively with a giant kinetic flower. Through pedalling stations and accessible hand-cycle mechanisms, participants are able to set the sculpture in motion together, with the opportunity to contribute chalk and pencil markings surrounding the piece, too.

Collective Bloom is for the people of New York. It transforms a corporate, inner-city plaza into a space of shared creativity, prompting moments of reflection and connection among strangers. At a time when the city is actively reframing its streets as places for community rather than transit, the piece offers a chance to slow down and engage in something collaborative, and unexpected. It creates space for people to observe, and to contribute - adding their energy, their mark, and their movement to a larger whole. Rather than rewarding the speed of any one individual's efforts, the installation depended on the number of participants contributing to a shared collective energy. A living, truly collaborative artwork shaped by the city itself.