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A large-scale piece of public art was unveiled on Monday afternoon on the Upper West Side — and it represents far more than a splash of color on a construction fence.

The mural, titled The Future We Create, was designed by artist Vanesa Álvarez and assistant artist Derval Fairweather in collaboration with public art nonprofit ArtBridge. Installed near the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 62nd Street, it now adorns the construction fencing along the perimeter of Damrosch Park, where Lincoln Center’s long-planned transformation of its western campus is getting underway.

The artwork is the product of a participatory process that included workshops and conversations led by Álvarez with local residents, NYCHA neighbors, students and other community stakeholders, who helped shape the mural’s themes and imagery.

“This is more than a piece of art — it’s a story,” Álvarez said at the unveiling. “Behind this mural is a history of community: of joy, of color, of people spending time together, creating together, believing in the arts, and being part of making it.”

For Fairweather, the project carries personal significance. “I grew up around Lincoln Center and the Amsterdam Houses, so being involved in this work truly feels like a homecoming,” he said.

The unveiling marks a milestone in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Lincoln Center West Initiative, the roughly $335 million project that will remove the wall along Damrosch Park and replace it with open entrances, garden spaces with increased greenery and biodiversity, and a new outdoor amphitheater for free performances. Lincoln Center first announced the initiative in 2023 as an effort to “break down barriers, physical and otherwise” between the campus and the surrounding community — an acknowledgment of the site’s origins as a 1950s urban renewal project that displaced the San Juan Hill neighborhood. Hood Design Studio, WEISS/MANFREDI and Moody Nolan are leading the design work.

Construction is now underway, with the transformed campus expected to open in summer 2028.

Monday’s event included a guided walk along the mural and a reception in the David Geffen Hall lobby. Lincoln Center President and CEO Mariko Silver said the mural “reflects the joy and pride of New Yorkers and, in particular, of our immediate neighbors.”

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