Neuse River Park Public Art

Public Art at Neuse River Park

In 2024, artist Gabriel Eng-Goetz was selected to create public art for the new Neuse River Park. His work will be installed during construction of the park which is slated to open in Spring 2028.

The artist is gathering community input on their concept designs.
Share your feedback by taking a short survey!

About the Artist

Young man with black hair stands in front of a colorful mural depicting a large brown hand.

Gabriel Eng-Goetze is an award-winning, multidisciplinary artist, born and raised in Durham, NC. After receiving his BFA in Illustration and Sculpture from Syracuse University, he returned to North Carolina where he works with his community to showcase and uplift NC's vibrant and diverse art scene, produce and curate events, and work as a youth mentor.

Eng-Goetze's work explores our human connection to the natural world and the cultural history of identity, including his own as an Asian American born and raised in the South.

Learn more about Gabriel

About the Project

Funded by the 2022 Parks Bond Referendum, the future Neuse River Park site is an 83.6-acre site, immediately adjacent to the Neuse River.. It will be located at 12028 Falls of Neuse Road, northeast of the I-540 Loop and east of Capital Boulevard.

Learn more about Neuse River Park

After multiple site visits and many in-person and digital engagement sessions, Gabriel Eng-Goetze's project theme became very clear: NATURE. The park’s setting along the Neuse River is the ideal backdrop to explore natural themes and with such rich biodiversity highlighted by park patrons and residents.

Eng-Goetze is proposing four separate panels, each with its own cast of local characters set in different micro-habitats along the river. Each panel encourages interaction and invites viewers to move around the artwork to identify and learn about the native species that inhabit the park and surrounding areas. Inspired by stained glass church windows and Art Nouveau architecture, the artwork serves as a monument for an ancient source of life — the mighty Neuse River.

Proposed panels for the Neuse River public art.

Project Timeline

The project timeline for planning, design and construction of these improvements runs from 2024-2028.

Date	Activity
Early-Mid 2025	Concept Design
2025-2026	Final Design
2026-2028	Fabrication and Installation

Public Engagement

From 2023-2024, project artists and designers gathered inspiration and learned about the history of Neuse River Park and surrounding community. Visit the Neuse River Park Planning Process PublicInput project page or the Neuse River Park Draft Concept Plan Survey PublictInput project page to learn more about the artists and view art survey results.

Visit the engagement portal to view the public engagement process