In response to Anya’s latest blog on an “intriguing and unusual exhibition to visit” in London, New York has some “art in odd places” to visit this weekend too. Exploring the “odd, ordinary and ingenious in the spectacle of daily life,” the annual Art in Odd Places festival aims to expand, question and provoke the way we communicate in public space. Simply put, it forces us to question the role art plays in public.

The festival is a must. It is free. Most exciting is how it transforms the Lower East Side and Alphabet city for the weekend, turning store shop windows into curious displays, public gardens into theatrical stagings, and forcing walker-bys to closely examine everything – from cracks in the sidewalks to building cornices. The Art in Odd Places festival, if nothing else, forces us to take nothing in this city for granted, forcing us to peel our eyes a bit more than usual by highlighting the unusual.

Photos Courtesy of DannyBirchall and Hragv with Creative Commons License