Every night just before midnight, Times Square's screens drop their ads and play Dustin Grella's Sunday Morning, animated from drawings on a chalkboard salvaged from an 1800s schoolhouse. Grella compresses more than twenty years of footage into a three-minute loop of blinking walk signals, the old Moondance Diner, a Central Park picnic and an East Village stoop from his first days in the city. If you're out late in Midtown, stop for three quiet minutes.
What to expect
Expect the billboards between 41st and 49th Streets to shift in unison to the chalk animation for about three minutes. The pedestrian plazas along Broadway are the best spots to take in several screens at once, and an audio guide accompanies the work online.
Good to know
- Watch from the Broadway pedestrian plazas between 41st and 49th Streets; the red TKTS steps give a wide view.
- Arrive a few minutes early and look up; it starts in sync across the screens.
- Times Square Arts offers an audio guide for the piece.
- Any 1, 2, 3, 7, N, Q, R, W or S train to Times Square–42nd Street puts you there.
- Crowds are thinner late on weeknights than on weekend nights.
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Common questions
What time does Midnight Moment play?
Nightly from 11:57pm to midnight throughout October 2026.
Where can I see Sunday Morning?
On synchronized electronic billboards along Broadway between 41st and 49th Streets.
How was the animation made?
Dustin Grella hand-drew it on a chalkboard salvaged from an 1800s schoolhouse, compressing over twenty years of footage into a three-minute loop.
