With support from the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute, NCA partnered with Greenpoint Innovations to create a community art installation in Long Island City to illustrate what our waterway once looked like as a healthy, productive and thriving tributary; call attention to the ecological loss suffered by environmental damage; and highlight what could return through reduction in stormwater pollution and restoration efforts.
After an open call process, artist Iena Cruz was selected and the Q404 Hunters Point Campus building finalized as the location for the mural. The project team worked closely with the Department of Education, the School Construction Authority and principals from the schools located within the campus building (Hunters Point Community Middle School, the Academy for Careers in Television and Film, and the Riverview Schoo)l in selecting the Borden avenue side of this award-winning public school building as the locations for Cruz’s High Tide mural. Located just a few blocks from the mouth of Newtown Creek, adjacent to Hunters Point Park and across the East River from the United Nations, the mural serves as an educational resource for local students engaging in place-based learning and the Newtown Creek Urban Ecology Curriculum.
Federico “Iena Cruz” Massa (born in Milan, Italy 1981) is a Brooklyn based muralist, contemporary artist and set designer; globally recognized for his work. Massa’s art, both the murals and canvas works, fuses his skills as a large-scale painter and set designer, and evinces his love of nature, bold colors and decorative motifs.
The mural was an official part of Climate Week NYC and the SDG Action Zone during the United Nations General Assembly, Additional mural support provided by Materials for the Arts, Smog Armor and Hunters Point Parks Conservancy. Additional funding provided by Greenpoint Innovations.
