New York City is the cynosure of the modern-art world, but some of its most fascinating pieces aren’t confined within the white walls of prestige galleries. In-the-know New Yorker Alan Cohen will show you the grand-scale, socially aware and playful pieces of public art dotted throughout the Financial District, tracking more than a century of sculptures, murals, memorials and interactive installations.

New York’s public artworks were commissioned as part of the 19th-century’s City Beautiful Movement. Some delineate historic moments (the East Coast Memorial, Luis Sanguino’s The Immigrants), some are playful (the rideable Seaglass Carousel, Noguchi’s Sunken Garden), and some court controversy (Kristen Visbal’s Fearless Girl). Learn why Seward Johnson’s Double Check was mistaken for a 9/11 victim, the symbolism of Daniel Chester French’s Four Continents and the secrets the sun reveals at the Korean War Veterans’ Memorial.