We are very happy to offer virtual after school programs to third, fourth and fifth graders from our newest ART YARD partnership school the Brooklyn New School. This studio art course will foster a range of skills from art technique to critical thinking, which helps scaffold student achievement of academic, social and personal goals. We will use readily available art materials and found materials to delve into a variety of artmaking skills, explore works by master artists and investigate a variety of intellectual ideas as we engage in the ART YARD Year of Community.
This week in ART YARD Advanced Studio Teaching Artist Flávia Berindoague took inspiration from her own newest work in a session titled Mapping The Past, Mapping The Present, Wondering About The Future.
Flávia explains: “There is a long history when it comes to maps and their role in our lives. Participating artists created an abstract map connecting two different places: one from the place they isolated themselves and one from a place they were unable to be due to Covid19. Some artists chose places related to their affective memory, others chose places referring to their experiences of events happening during the pandemic such as the protests in Lower East Side in Manhattan, missing reunions, nearby restaurants now closed to indoor dining, family in Brazil and cancelled exhibitions in Venice.”
We then followed Flávia’s demonstration to cut our maps into strips which we then carefully wove together to create a new interwoven map.
As in her own recent pieces, Flávia describes: “The connection of both maps reflected on the idea that maps show us where we are, where we want to go, and where we’ve been. Deconstructing and recreating new maps was an attempt to reflect on how we perceive places after pandemic. How communities from different economic background are gathering together to overcome the current situation; how we are re-configuring lives now, the uncertainty of being in NY: economic and social conditions after pandemic.”
This week in ART YARD CREATE we are celebrating the Autumnal Equinox! Head on over and share your images and words.
I hear the great Billie Holiday croon...
Autumn in New York, why does it seem so inviting? Autumn in New York, it spells the thrill of first-nighting Glittering crowds and shimmering clouds in canyons of steel They're making me feel I'm home
- Vernon Duke
Sarah is working on a new fall project using silver sunshine yarn crocheting fall leaves.
Marie shared this tiny watercolor is late fall last year, with small piles of colorful leaves.
If you are interested in safely viewing contemporary art in in Brooklyn, I recommend visiting Old Stone House in Park Slope and Figureworks Gallery in Williamsburg.
In the garden at Old Stone House Teaching Artist Iviva Olenick has work included in Brooklyn Utopias: 2020 which looks at Brooklyn’s past, present and future by inviting artists to consider differing visions of an ideal Brooklyn, or imagine their own. Brooklyn Utopias also addresses the possibilities (or limitations) of art in creating a better world.
Happy 20th anniversary to Figureworks Gallery! Gallery Director Randall Harris is presenting a series of Figureworks Flat File rotating group exhibitions celebrating contemporary and 20th century fine art that explores the human form. Currently on view are works by me and Teaching Artist Cecile Chong.
I am excited to report that on Thursday October 8th at 7:30pm I will be a featured guest on ARTMOVEZ_which aims to advance the power of art to move people, society and the future. By delving into the expanse of artistic expression, inspiration, trends, practices, community and responsibility through deep conversation with respected members of the art world.
Hosted by Toni Williams and Eli Kuslansky, the ARTMOVEZ_ podcast series interviews art luminaries, cultural leaders, community advocates, performers, authors, and emerging artists at the cusp of a new renaissance as we strive to make the arts more accessible, equitable and relevant.
I hope you have an inspired and art-filled first week of the season.
