Messages Of Hope, Gratitude And Safety Replace Ads In Times Square

Even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic — with tourists gone, and commuters home — around 30,000 people pass through Times Square each day. A new public art project unveiled Friday wants to give them something to look at — visual messages of hope, gratitude and public safety on Times Square's iconic billboards.

Jean Cooney, director of Times Square Arts, oversees temporary installations of public art in the Square's plaza and on its billboards. And she says there are still people going through Times Square and many of them have critical jobs — they are health care workers, law enforcement, grocery and pharmacy workers, and others.

Times Square Arts wanted to say thanks, and it turns out the Poster House museum and Print Magazine had the same idea. So they decided to collaborate, says Poster House museum director Julia Knight.