Starting in the late 1960s, groups such as the Public Art Fund and New York City's Public Arts Council funded works of public art all around New York. These sculptures were sometimes celebrated, and sometimes ill-received, often prompting both civil discussion and lively debate.

Since 1977, this plaza on the southeast corner of Central Park has showcased over 60 sculptural art installations courtesy New York City's Public Art Fund. The plaza is named for Doris C. Freedman, an advocate for public art who founded the Public Art Fund in 1977, the same year this plaza became a prominent site for exhibiting sculptural works. Mayor Edward I. Koch dedicated the plaza to Freedman in 1981. In addition to founding the Public Art Fund, Freedman had served as the president of City Walls, which sponsored over 50 murals across the five boroughs, and founded the Public Arts Council. Freedman was the president of the Municipal Arts Society and New York's first Director of Cultural Affairs during Mayor Lindsey's administration. Freedman is known for celebrating the ideas and controversies public sculpture could provoke. In a speech, she said of the role of public art: "contemporary public sculpture presents a new visual and emotional experience, a challenge to our senses and sensibilities... sculpture that confronts us on our way to work, our daily errands, is no longer the remote object belonging to the world of galleries and museums, but a special component of our daily lives."