Elmhurst Sculpture Garden in Queens, New York

The strips of green next to the highway offramps tend to be pretty desolate, populated with weeds and trash. The pocket next to where the Long Island Expressway lets drivers off onto Queens Boulevard was no exception, until a group of sculptors decided to carve out a space for local art. The space was already being used sporadically by people in the neighborhood, but it was local artist Susan Vario who asked another artist, Yvonne Shortt, to collaborate on a project to turn it into a true community space. A mission group from Texas came and did the initial cleanup, while Shortt used a Burni...