Art in Ad Places was a sustained campaign of replacing advertisements with artwork. Each week in 2017, we partnered with a new artist to install their work at a payphone in New York City. We continued to install new art in payphones throughout the city on an ad hoc basis through June 2021.
What We Believe
Outdoor advertising is visual pollution.
Outdoor advertising can be psychologically damaging.
Outdoor advertising is pushed on viewers without their consent.
Outdoor advertising marks underutilized venues for other messages.
By replacing advertisements with artwork, Art in Ad Places provided a public service and an alternative vision of our public environment.
Why
In the spring of 2016, there was a billboard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It advertised Brazilian butt lifts. Art in Ad Places co-founder Caroline Caldwell had to look at that ad every single day on the way to work. She hated the message it sent, and how it made her (and undoubtedly others) feel about her body. Art in Ad Places is a response to the belief that money can buy access to eyeballs, no matter the message. It is a small effort to clean up public space: Instead of ads making people feel inadequate, let's fill our lives with art that makes people feel... anything else.
WHO
RJ Rushmore, Co-curator
Writer, curator, arts administrator, and critic, with a focus on public art
Luna Park, Photographer and Co-Curator
Preeminent photographer of graffiti, street art, and ad takeovers, librarian, and author
Past Collaborators Include
Amplifier (guest curator), Stephanie Baptist (guest curator), Micah Bazant (guest curator), Caroline Caldwell (co-founder), Dusty Rebel (guest curator), EM (social media advisor), Jess X. Snow (guest curator), and others who choose to remain anonymous.