Chloë Bass Record Release Party

Join Creative Time on Tuesday, March 24 from 6:30 to 9pm at Public Records for the limited vinyl release of If you hear something, free something, a public art project in sound by Chloë Bass presented by Creative Time and MTA Arts & Design.

to secure your copy, available for pick up at the release party. A limited number of records will also be available for purchase during the event.

From September 3 to October 5, 2025, artist Chloë Bass debuted her first sound work, If you hear something, free something, a public art commission presented by Creative Time in partnership with MTA Arts & Design. In a monumental and fleeting gesture, Bass interwove 24 poetic announcements into the New York City Transit’s Public Address (PA) system, engaging millions of residents spanning across neighborhoods and social boundaries. Cultivating a practice of everyday care while questioning the usual purposes of public address, Bass played critically with two well-known campaign slogans: “If You See Something, Say Something” and “Courtesy Counts.”

In a sonic gathering of Chloë Bass’s artistic collaborators, the vinyl record for If you hear something, free something, includes the poetic refrains that were echoed and whispered throughout the MTA subway stations. Side A of the vinyl record features recordings from Chloë Bass’s poetics verses, each recited by her collaborators. Side B is a series of remixes by Bill Dietz and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste of these verses. The vinyl record resounds with the possibilities for connection embedded in ordinary gestures of recognition for those with whom we share public space. Alongside this aural archive, the booklet includes several essays and an interview, each meditating on the liberatory and relational potential of public address.

Photography by Ally Caple. Art direction by Riley Hooker.

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