public works

Art in public spaces changes the way people feel and interact with the space. It pierces their psychic armor and enriches and engages people in places where they go about their daily business. In Public Art, Grabel finds an opportunity to make art accessible to people and have an impact on their lives.

The World’s Kitchen was created for the Staten  sland Children's Museum in 1991 as part of their Food for Thought exhibition. It shows men and women of different ethnicities in the process of making food.

Grabel received grants from NYSCA and DCA to create Regarding Women in 1996 for the lobby of the Center for Women’s Health at Staten Island University Hospital. She felt that medical facilities tend to be so cold and sterile and that art could humanize the experience for people. Grabel says, “I used a cross section of women of different ages and ethnicities to to create a work that women coming into the center would see themselves in and feel good about being there and taking care of themselves.”