Leah Oates, an artist whose work involves photography, printmaking and art of the book, has opened a window onto springtime in the park — underground along the #7 line at the 42^nd Street Bryant Park MTA Station. 

The new work for MTA Arts & Design is comprised of a 7-panel lightbox more than 50 feet long. The backlighted photographs were made, says the artist, at outer-borough parks where nature overcomes the urban grid and environmental obstacles, and thrives. Oates manipulates the film to keep the frame visible in the image, underscoring the sense of the unspooling of time. Her angled viewpoint provide a sense of simultaneously being there and here as these images open a window to a world of sensory perception. The lightbox will be on view through mid-2017. Info

This weekend, May 14-15, the New York Botanical Garden opens the exhibition Impressionism: American Gardens on Canvas, in the Enid A. HauptConservatory, and a Garden-wide 125^th Anniversary celebration. A stunning interpretation of the alluring gardens that influenced iconic artists such as Childe Hassam and John Singer Sargent, the exhibition is complemented by a display in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library's Art Gallery of more than 20 paintings and sculptures by these famed artists and their contemporaries. The weekend programming includes jazz and tap performances, a lively evening concert series, film screenings, lectures and symposia, art activities for children and adults, and a poetry walk. Info Schedule

On Monday, May 16, as part of the Strand Book Store series Discovering Design, Seymour Chwast, along with Jack Lenor Larsen and Jane Thompson, will take part in the panel discussion, Legends of New York City Design — showcasing lifelong design luminaries all in their ninth decade. These icons are included in the newly published book Twenty Over Eighty, by Aileen Kwun and Bryn Smith (Princeton Architectural Press, 2016), which will be available at the event. Strand Book Store, Rare Book Room, 7 pm. 828 Broadway (at 12^th Street), NY, NY. Tickets