“Reaching Out for Each Other” by Juan Sánchez is a series of faceted glass windscreens and windows that brightens the 176 St station with streaming rays of warm colors. Hands are used as a central feature of the composition and serve to communicate meaning through a universal language. Using printed photographs of hundreds of hands, Sánchez cut and tore the paper, interspersing the pieces with bright colors and interesting shapes to produce a variety of seasonal collages. Sánchez explained his concept as follows, "The challenge was to create simple, direct, and consistent works for an urban train station. I wanted the artwork to be attractive and stimulating with much meaning and life. I wanted my art to visually convey people reaching and striving." 

Born to working class Puerto Rican immigrants in Brooklyn, Juan Sánchez is an influential American visual artist, and a key Nuyorican cultural figure of the latter 20th century. Sánchez has produced an extensive body of work that addresses: race and class, cultural identity, equality, social justice, and self-determination. He emerged among a generation of artists using diverse media to explore ethnic, racial, national identity and social justice in 1980s and ’90s. While Sánchez first gained recognition for his large multi-layered mixed media collages, his work has evolved to embrace photography, printmaking, and video. Sánchez exhibited and lectured throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America. His art is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and El Museo del Barrio among others.