Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain Visits Heckscher Park Through Immersive AR Experience

The Heckscher Museum of Art, in partnership with the Central Park Conservancy—the nonprofit organization that manages Central Park—brings Emma Stebbins’ iconic Bethesda Fountain to life in Heckscher Park, Huntington, through an Augmented Reality (AR) experience. Visitors will be able to use their smartphones to experience the full monument in this new setting. The immersive experience will allow visitors to look thoughtfully at Stebbins’s magnificent work as they take a 360-degree virtual walk around the entire monument. This one-of-a kind event coincides with the seminal exhibition, Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History.

The exhibition devotes a gallery to exploring the central role the Bethesda Fountain has played serving as a convening space, cultural hub, cinematic icon, beacon for tourists, and inspiration to other artists, like Tony Kushner, who placed the Bethesda Fountain at the center of his Pulitzer Prize winning play Angels in America, and who wrote a foreword for the exhibition catalogue. After visiting the exhibition, visitors will be able to experience the spectacular monument just a few feet outside the Museum doors.

For the best AR viewing, visitors can use the QR codes easily accessible on Museum signage in areas in front of the Museum in Heckscher Park. Look for the Emma Stebbins AR in Apple or Google App Stores.