Rumi

Ivana Metrovic traces her nearly four-decade involvement with Mark di Suvero and the development of Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens. She recounts the park’s informal, resourceful beginnings in the 1980s, its deep ties to the local community, and its evolution into a major public art institution. The conversation highlights key moments of organizational growth, including negotiations with the city, the shift toward professionalization in the late 1990s, and ongoing tensions with urban development. Destrovik emphasizes the park’s identity as an experimental, artist-centered space that adapts over time. She also reflects on environmental challenges, changing neighborhood dynamics, and the collaborative effort behind the park’s long-term success.

Lars Fisk, facilities manager at Socrates Sculpture Park from approximately 2008 to 2015, reflects on his time at the park in this interview conducted by Co-Director Katie Dixon. Fisk talks about coming to Socrates as a participant in the Emerging Artist Fellowship Program, creating a large-scale steel and masonry sculpture on-site, and transitioning into the facilities manager role. He discusses the rundown state of the studio facilities when he arrived, the physical and logistical challenges of producing outdoor sculpture, and the rewarding experience of working in public view after years of isolated studio practice. Fisk describes the park’s diverse and evoling community of visitors, the neighborhood surrounding the park, and his unusually intimate relationship with the site: he lived on the property in a dwelling he built from shipping containers. He speaks warmly about the staff and crew at neighboring Spacetime/Mark di Suvero’s organization, and about standout projects including the Agnes Denes pyramid installation. The interview closes with Fisk’s hopes for the park’s future and his admiration for Mark di Suvero’s founding vision.

Sculptor Scott Pfaffman sits down with Socrates Sculpture Park Artistic Director Shaun Leonardo to describe his early involvement with the Athena Foundation and the transformation of the Long Island City waterfront site into what became Socrates. Pfaffman traces his path from a struggling young sculptor with three pending commissions and no studio, to working alongside Mark di Suvero and Enrico Navarra at the Athena Foundation pier, to helping build out the park’s first exhibition grounds in the mid-1980s. He recounts the park’s scrappy, homemade origins including hauling logs, distributing truckloads of wood chips, building makeshift equipment, as well as personal stories about the artist-housing program. The interview closes with Pfaffman’s reflections on grief, ownership, and what he hopes for the park’s future.

Sculptor Owen Morrel discusses with interviewer Paige Laino his participation in Socrates Sculpture Park’s inaugural exhibition (1985–86), including how he was connected to the park through arts patron Ruth Cummings and Whitney Museum director Adam Weinberg, and recounts installing his sculpture “Anchor” near the East River with founder Mark di Suvero. Morrel traces his path from ceramics training at the School of Visual Arts and Brooklyn Museum to metal sculpture, describing public art projects across 1970s–80s Manhattan and Brooklyn, including an unauthorized rooftop installation that landed on the cover of the Village Voice and a landmark-approved piece on the McGraw-Hill Building. He situates Socrates within the wider downtown New York art scene of the period, recalling personal connections to figures such as Julian Schnabel, Gordon Matta-Clark, Keith Haring, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The interview closes with reflections on his later life, career, and the loss of his wife, alongside his observations on how the freewheeling, low-cost art world of Manhattan no longer exists.

Shaun Leonardo, executive director of Socrates Sculpture Park, speaks with oral historian Dani Stompor to reflect on his two-decade relationship with the park. He begins with his first visit in 2004, discussing his early role as events manager organizing the park’s outdoor cinema program and other community programs, and later to his positions as director of public programs and board member before eventually returning to the park as executive director.

Leonardo recounts the development of community-centered programming at the park in the early 2000s, including outdoor film screenings curated in collaboration with institutions such as local restaurants, the Museum of the Moving Image, and Rooftop Films. He discusses the improvisational nature of producing events in the park’s earlier years, emphasizing his vision of community engagement as a reciprocal exchange.

Throughout the interview, Leonardo reflects on the founding ethos of the park established by artist Mark di Suvero and a coalition of artists and community members who reclaimed the former landfill site along the East River. He describes the park as a “democratic experiment” rooted in learning by doing. The conversation also explores Leonardo’s own artistic practice in socially engaged art and how his institutional work intersects with his identity as an artist.

The interview also examines the park’s evolving relationship with the surrounding neighborhood of Astoria, particularly along the East River. Leonardo discusses demographic change and the importance of continually developing relationships with local residents. In particular, he discusses the unique relationship Socrates has with Astoria Houses and the history of their workforce development program. He also reflects on the park’s ecological stewardship and the incremental transformation of the park through horticulture, land reclamation, and climate resilience efforts.

In closing, Leonardo shares his vision for the future of Socrates Sculpture Park as it approaches its 40th anniversary. He outlines plans to reinvigorate the park’s founding principles while maintaining its role as a free and accessible public space for artistic experimentation and communal gathering. Interview conducted by Danica Stompor.