Join us for an Artist Talk and Memorial Walk featuring Michael James Freedman’s multimedia art installation The Distance From Here and Crashscape.nyc. Local elected officials, representatives of Families for Safe Streets and members of the artistic and general community will be invited to experience the artwork, remember loved ones and learn about ways to support local and statewide initiatives to make our streets safer from traffic violence.
More about World Day of Remembrance: Sunday, November 15, 12 noon – 1pm
Sunday, November 15, 2026 marks World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDoR – wdor-usa.org), an international observance honoring people killed and injured in road crashes and calling for safer streets. We are proud to help commemorate the 2026 World Day of Remembrance with this event that combines art and advocacy.
Beginning at Littlefield with The Distance From Here, the gathering will continue into the surrounding streets. We will demonstrate the Crashscape App which visualizes an augmented reality landscape of traffic crashes on local streets. The event connects the exhibition’s encounter with loss to the neighborhood itself, inviting participants to remember lives lost and consider how to prevent further deaths.
More about The Distance from Here:
Produced by Why Not Art, Freedman’s The Distance From Here begins with four oil paintings tied to fatal traffic crashes near Littlefield in Gowanus; each title measures the distance from the venue to the crash site. A projected map extends the work across the city: the viewer points at a location, and four images of the closest crashes emerge. The project transforms raw data into narrative, exposing the emotionally brutal truth concealed within the dry traffic statistics of NYC streets.
This art exhibit is part of Michael James Freedman’s ongoing art and advocacy work as CrashCount.nyc (https://crashcount.nyc/). He is the lead technologist and artist behind an augmented reality app called Crashscape (https://crashcount.nyc/crashscape/), which will also be available for demonstration during the Arts Gowanus Open Studios weekend. The artist Michael James Freedman will be in the gallery to discuss the work and answer questions.
The Distance From Here will be open and on view Saturday 10/17 (12 -5pm) and Sunday 10/18 (12 – 4pm) in the Littlefield Gallery. The exhibition will remain on view until mid-December 2026, with this special event on Sunday November 15, 2026.
More information about the exhibition: https://crashcount.nyc/the-distance-from-here/
More information about WDOR: https://mjf.art/wdor
Artist: @michaeljamesfreedman, @crashcountnyc
Curator: @whynotartnyc