Public Art Fund is a nonprofit organization that presents free, ambitious exhibitions of contemporary art in public spaces across New York City and beyond. It was founded in 1977 by Doris C. Freedman, who merged two organizations she had previously led, the Public Arts Council and City Walls Inc., into a single 501(c)(3) devoted to bringing art into everyday public life. Since then, Public Art Fund has presented more than 500 exhibitions and projects across all five boroughs, becoming known for backing artists early in their careers and for recurring series such as Messages to the Public, a media-based project that ran from 1982 to 1990. Its projects now extend beyond New York to cities including Boston, Chicago, Newark, and Washington, D.C., and it continues to be led by Freedman's daughter, Susan K. Freedman, as president.