Client Overview: Public Art Fund

Public Art Fund is one of our longest-standing clients and we've been collaborating with them on films and original content for more than ten years. Public art is ephemeral. Most Public Art Fund exhibitions are only up for a few months and then disappear, leaving their mark on the millions of New Yorkers who encountered them. Our videos for Public Art Fund illuminate these art experiences. We take viewers into the artistic and curatorial vision for the work, the studio and fabrication process, and the different ways each installation can be experienced and interpreted. The resulting films (and podcasts!) take as myriad forms as the eclectic artworks that PAF exhibits across New York City and beyond.

Selected Films

Exhibtion Films: Cannupa Hanksa Luger

We've made more than 50 exhibtion films for Public Art Fund over the last ten plus years. In this film for the exhibition Attrition, we engage with artist Cannupa Hanska Luger in his New Mexico studio to discuss the profound history and cultural significance of the bison and obscured histories within the United States.

This unique access to the artist is combined with immersive views of the exhibition on view in City Hall Park in New York City.

Interviewer/Director: Noah Therrien
Story Editor: Rachel Wolff
Cinematographers: Noah Therrien, Nate Reininga, Lyle Shanahan, Thomas Lange
Editor: Hannah Kaylor
Music: Noah Therrien and others

PAF Podcast: Public Art Works (2019)

In this six-part podcast series, artists and cultural leaders explore subjects like activism, representation, feminism, and even street food through the lens of public art in New York City.

Written and directed by SandenWolff Creative Director Rachel Wolff, the series was hosted and performed by actor Jeffrey Wright and featured conversations among diverse voices including artists Ai Weiwei, Sue de Beer, Kate Gilmore, Xaviera Simmons, Hank Willis Thomas, Lawrence Weiner, and Erwin Wurm; chef & restauranteur Danny Meyer; Ford Foundation President Darren Walker; Public Art Fund’s own Nicholas Baume and Susan K. Freedman; and everyday New Yorkers.

Listen to all six episodes below and a special teaser at left.

Writer/Producer: Rachel Wolff
Host: Jeffrey Wright
Interviewer/Story Editor: Rachel Wolff
Sound Recordists: Noah Therrien, Reed Adler,
Editors: Jonathan Sanden, Stephen Parnigoni, Rachel Wolff

Audio Episodes:

PAF40: Public Art Fund 40th Anniversary Series

In 2017, we created this twelve-part documentary series celebrating Public Art Fund's 40th anniversary, debuting one film a month throughout the year. SW Creative Director Rachel Wolff conceptualized the entire series that featured five exhibition films and a series of thematic retrospective pieces that each explored a different aspect of PAF's story and mission, bringing in fresh perspectives from the public as well. The series culminated in a full 17-minute documentary deep-diving into the full history of the institution.

Writer/Producer: Rachel Wolff
Interviewer/Story Editor/Producer: Rachel Wolff
Cinematographers: Jonathan Sanden, Noah Therrien, Nate Reininga
Editors: Stephen Parnigoni, Hannah Kaylor
Music: Noah Therrien and others