The seventh volume of the Dumbo Projection Project, Brooklyn’s largest projection-based public art series, will return May 1 through May 31, with installations on view Wednesdays through Sundays from dusk to 11:00pm.
Now in its third year, the exhibition, presented by Team Dumbo (Dumbo Business Improvement District), is an outdoor video art series that transforms some of the area’s most recognizable infrastructure into large-scale canvases, including the Manhattan Bridge on the Plaza side and the BQE wall at Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Steward Park.
Titled The Dumbo Projection Project: V7 | Dumbo: Past, Present & Future, this year’s edition explores the neighborhood through its history, present identity and imagined future. In a notable shift, all featured works are interactive, encouraging viewers to engage directly through digital tools such as websites and smartphone flashlights.
"It’s been fascinating to see our V7 artists create work that responds to and plays with Dumbo’s iconic spaces–a giant bridge with the subway running overhead, the BQE with trucks lumbering overhead and pick up soccer games below,” said Clara Schuhmacher, senior vice president of the Dumbo Business Improvement District. “And in an exciting evolution for the Dumbo Projection Project, this show is interactive, inviting each of us to connect with our public spaces in novel ways. It’s an only-in-Dumbo moment!”
Four installations will be presented on a continuous loop across both locations. SubWave, created by Ryan Webber, Gwen Goins and Rafia Santana, draws on the soundscape and waterfront ecology of Dumbo to evoke the East River’s past, with waves rising and falling in sync with passing trains. Have You Eaten Yet?, by Justina-Maria Soto, Ceren Eskicirak, Summer Hwang and Ivan Abogado, reflects on food, care and everyday acts of connection inspired by a familiar question among loved ones.
Shadow Theater, developed by Haoren Zhong, Ivy Jiang and Zongshuai Zhang, invites audiences to use their phones as light sources to uncover the journey of a teddy bear, revealing layered imagery through collective participation. Behind the Bricks, by Michael Culleton, Jaye Du, William Yao and Seungmin Yeon, offers a playful, interactive look beneath Dumbo’s facade, allowing viewers to digitally “chip away” at walls to reveal unexpected stories from the neighborhood.
The project is presented in collaboration with Professor Gabriel Barcia-Colombo and graduate students from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, a Tisch School of the Arts program focused on experimental media and creative technology.
Launched in 2024, the Dumbo Projection Project builds on Team Dumbo’s history of large-scale public art initiatives, including the long-running Light Year series and the Dumbo Arts Festival. The program continues annually, with additional support from the New York City Department of Transportation Art program, the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Leo Kuelbs Collection.
