Third Spaces
- frida@artyardbklyn.org
- 15 hours ago
- 14 min read
Updated: 2 hours ago
We began this busy week in Advanced Studio on zoom with AYB Artist Assata Benoit, exploring the particularly timely concept of third spaces.
Drawing from Ray Oldenburg’s influential book The Great Good Place, Assata introduced us to the idea of third spaces: the places that exist beyond home (the first space) and work (the second space). These are the informal gathering places—cafés, parks, libraries, community centers, studios, and other shared environments—where relationships are built, ideas are exchanged, and a sense of belonging can take root. Third spaces serve as vital sites of connection, creativity, and collective life.
To deepen the conversation, we looked at paintings by Nina Sechko, mixed-media works by Michael Edward Ellison, and abstract paintings by Yung Wu, each approaching the concept through different materials, methods, and style.
Screen shots from Assata's presentation
Reflecting on the session, Assata shared: "The emotional significance of the Third Space was made tangible in the wonderful critique.
The third space is a point of longing for the average American because we've evolved so far into functionality that we've begun to erase the collective consciousness—by design, of course.
Vyomika, and Adji depict dancing and live music:
Karla collages a game of pick up basketball:
With Fisola we are at a roof top party:
Sudan's work brings in the intellectual and emotional Third Spaces which we find through reading and our community of readers. His piece depicts Harry Haywood, Sonia Sanchez, and the book Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson.
Vee and Pat both depict street life. Vee a city street crossing and Pat the Third Space evoked by a snowstorm. Sigrid looks at street life from the vantage point of the Brooklyn Stoop.
Sigrid Dolan, Third Spaces: On the Stoop
Travis and Rachel use the "watering hole" as a metaphoric and visual center point in layered depictions of how one feels emotionally with access to Third Spaces.
Rashidah explains her drawing in progress: "Following this lesson's theme of third spaces I decided to depict my favorite third space as a teenager, MTV Studios. Though, not conventionally thought as of a third space, going to watch tapings of Total Request Live (TRL) on the streets of Times Square with my friend from middle school invited us to explore NYC independently, talk to people from all over the globe, and feel united with others through music."
Assata depicts the Third Space of the hair salon.
Assata continues: "I want to commend the emotional responses we felt through each other's art and through acknowledging the community we receive from AYB.
It's important to ask yourself: where do you spend time that isn't home or work? When you think about that question, you may notice that you're already in community with people you often overlook. Third spaces remind us that connection exists all around us, even when we aren't consciously seeking it. And when you begin to name what people don't realize they're missing, the conversation usually goes much deeper than expected."
Amelia illustrates the emotional well being we derive from exposure to third spaces.
Aaron uses monochromatic painting and researched color theory to illustrate a library:
The discussion moved beyond formal critique and into a shared consideration of what it means to gather, create, and care for one another in an increasingly fragmented world. Together, we reflected on how art spaces themselves can function as third spaces, places where community is not only formed, but continually renewed.
On Tuesday morning, Teaching Artist Evelyn Beliveau finished up a cycle of lessons at PS 17 in Jersey City with a combination class of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders called A Train Through Time.
AYB co-founder and Managing Director Dennis Buonagura recaps: "Evelyn recapped the project and reiterated her demonstration of the proper usage of watercolor paints. The students went right to work and followed instructions extremely well.
Their classroom teacher, Mr. Hamilton, participated in the lesson and created a rainbow train car called the 205 - and one student drew and painted a NYC subway car (the #2 train!) while others decorated trains with stars, flowers, stripes, and numbers.
Once completed, Evelyn cut out the trains (wheels and all!) and hung them in our gallery connected by yarn - going around the walls under various other installed projects.
After classes, I (Dennis) met with our fantastic docents (Angel, Kyle, Adbul, Hattie, Nitya, Biswajith, Parv) in the gallery (while Evelyn and Nick finished up installing) - for their first round of training - all 5th graders this year and each and every one jumped right into action. I gave them print-outs of our labels to use as reference guides - but most were the best at improvising (which I encourage!). They were all on target and they'll be practicing at home and ready to offer docent tours on Friday. Evelyn and Nick were gigantically helpful during docent training - either acting as mock-visitors or explaining their individual projects."
Speaking of Third Spaces, on Tuesday evening, Advanced Studio celebrated Gemini season in person on the gorgeous roof deck at 180 Franklin Avenue as AYB Teaching Artist Evelyn Beliveau taught a double header.
Evelyn writes: “On Tuesday at Advanced Studio, we celebrated Gemini season with a lesson conducted at a special new location: the beautiful rooftop space at 180 Franklin Avenue, which we were graciously invited to visit. The skyline views wowed us and brought up bittersweet memories of our previous studio space at BWAC, where sunset views were a classtime staple. As a nod to the Gemini twins, we created diptychs, with many different takes on split and dual views. We started with a dictionary definition:
Diptych - a picture or series of pictures (such as an altarpiece) painted or carved on two hinged tablets (Merriam-Webster)
Then, we viewed four examples of contemporary diptychs with different styles and compositions. Some included parts of two equal sizes, while others included one taller or one wider half; some were joined on hinges or displayed flush against each other, while others were displayed with a gap in between.
Devin N. Morris (b. 1986, Baltimore, MD; lives and works in New York)
“In No Place for Haints, a standing diptych crafted from a pair of hinged doors (cabinet and screen, respectively) a figure on the right panel climbs a stepladder to paint a ceiling haint blue, a color that, according to the Gullah Geechee peoples in the American South, helps ward off malevolent spirits. The left panel shows an elegant rendering of a young man wearing boots, khaki shorts, and a white T-shirt while carrying an enormous, bright-orange carrot. He steps on a sign that reads “ONE WAY”—a threshold for traversing planes, says Morris. The screen door is lightly smattered with bits of haint blue—a gesture by the artist to protect his youthful subjects, surely, and one that is so clearly full of love.”
Catherine Murphy (b. 1946, Cambridge, Massachusetts)
“With impressions of the occupants pressed into the linens, Murphy co-locates presence and absence.” “Murphy is engaged in an ongoing visual study of similarity and variation that proceeds by looping back on itself. It is indeed a perception of the universal, yet a very intimate one.”
“She is particularly attuned to how seeing is haunted by an awareness of mortality. In “Bed Clothes” (2023), a red shirt, patterned skirt, and yellow socks are casually laid out on a bed, as if they had been arranged in the form of an absent body. Absence is also felt in “Double Bed” (2022), identically sized pendant paintings separated by two inches, depicting two pillows piled on a bed, each indented where a head once lay. The work brought to mind the last line of John Berryman’s poem “Dream Song 1”: “and empty grows every bed.””
Janice Biala (1903–2000)
“Les Autos, a diptych of two unequal-width canvases presenting a panorama of pulsating action in which fenders, portals, and streetlights jostle with one another by way of cut-canvas collage elements and swaths of brushed pigments. Standing before the painting, I looked both ways as if stepping off a curb. Switchback ribbons, stripes, and checkerboard patterns recall Abstract Expressionist works like Lee Krasner’s Palingenisis and Robert Motherwell’s Ninth Street Collage as well as Joan Miro’s surreal Carnaval d’Arlequin.”
Meridith McNeal
Meridith McNeal, Inside Outside Doesn’t The Paint Say It All? (Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn), 2026, and Inside Outside Alma Thomas Resurrection (Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn), 2026, watercolor on paper 26.5x19.5” each
Our very own Meridith McNeal, one of the Geminis of the hour, had just finished a rare diptych piece when I was planning this lesson! She shared with us the story of finding two books about inspiring women artists in a bookstore window and taking the reference photos for the two halves of this piece.
Everyone found a spot on the roof and began to draw. Materials available were pencils, colored pencils, pens, and markers on paper. Participants tackled a range of subject matter, sourced from observation, memory, or imagination.
Many participants used two sheets of paper with subject matter split across the two halves, like Biala and Murphy. Dylan’s colorblocked robot with a stormy cityscape, Delanny’s whimsical double-rainbow scene, and Chris’s floating many-limbed figure all include figures split down the middle, while Arcenio’s surrealist flooding vision of the Twin Towers with zeppelin-like eyes and Amelia's subway car both split the setting across the middle dividing line. (Shown in that order)
Many participants turned to the skyline views around us for inspiration, including myself (Evelyn), Jules’s geometric interpretation which garnered a comparison to Mod interior design, Cheyenne’s use of the repeated text “BROOKLYN” in the blue of the sky, TJ’s detailed observational drawing in pencil of a far-off clock tower and a nearer awning, and Fernando’s well-observed skyline above the rooftop’s railing.
Vee paired two observational drawings of their own legs seated on the artificial lawn (leading to a comparison to the cover of Lena Dunham’s Famesick), and Jacob gazed down at the empty lot next door (two separate parts). Molly embedded one view inside a larger image in the style of a BeReal or the selfie thumbnail in a video call. Kevin observed the architecture on the rooftop (Molly and Kevin represented by the full critique image). Mia’s swirling abstractions, Sebastian’s bold cartoon characters, and Maria’s tree-and-lizard composition—unique for overlapping a vertical and a horizontal sheet of paper, and compared by Meridith to the cover of The Overstory by Richard Powers—were admired as well.
Throughout the evening, we feasted on potluck offerings and reflected with gratitude on our warm community and the fantastic space that hosts us.
Talk about a busy week!! There were many ART YARD Art Matters sessions in our partnership schools.
Evelyn recaps for PS 17: "After a dynamic semester of art-making, we have wrapped up our last day of classes at PS 17! From here on, our team will turn our full attention to preparing the exhibition, training docents, and celebrating students’ achievements throughout the year. This week, though, Dennis, Chris, and I (Evelyn) were busy in the classroom with our students in Grades 4, 7, 1, and 2.
In the finale of our Goldfinch in Flight project, students in Grade 4 worked together to paint a paper tree, which will support these airborne sculptures during the exhibition. Students who finished painting their papier-mâché goldfinch sculptures had the option to learn how to create knotted loops of fishing line from which to suspend their work, or to take a turn painting the textured bark of the cut-out tree in acrylic paint. The tree was a popular option, so we had students rotate in teams of four to five, painting side-by-side with gusto. The birds look fantastic, and we’re excited to see them “flying” around the branches of the tree.
Evelyn and students work on the tree
Grade 7 made good use of their final day to finish up their collages inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series—motivated by the reminder that this project, along with all the others we’ve worked on this year, will soon be on view in the library for the whole school to admire. Students brought their sketches into full color by cutting and gluing fragments of brightly colored paper into place, depicting scenes from family stories of moving from one place to another or historical migration stories. Some worked from imagination, while others looked up reference photos on the internet as they crafted their imagery.
Vibrant undersea scenes flooded the tables during our Grade 1 and 2 class periods, as students worked hard to complete mixed-media artworks of fish that travel in schools or shoals. Working from reference photos, they began last week by drawing the fish with pencils and oil pastels. This week, we brought out the watercolor paints so students could add the deep blues and greens of the underwater setting, and answer the science question we had posed: what happens when you mix oil and water? They stay apart from each other, leaving the bright colors of the fish pristine against the blue backgrounds. Students got a refresher on watercolor painting techniques, then worked enthusiastically, with some finishing their first piece and going on to paint another fish.
Today we celebrated the opening of the ART YARD at PS 6 Gallery!
Dennis reports from the heart of the action: “Our Year of Migration at PS 6 has come to an end with yet another successful opening exhibition, attended by school administrations, VIPs from the Jersey City Board of Education and District Superintendents - as well as very many students.
Our lesson projects were Echoes of PS 6 inspired by Faith Ringgold, (Teaching Artist Evelyn Beliveau) Migratory Animals In Motion inspired by Eadweard Muybridge (Teaching Artist Nick Tardiff), Tenement Housing inspired by Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizar (Teaching Artist Travis Cinco), Home: Here There and Everywhere inspired by artists Do Ho Suh and Judy Bowman (Teaching Artist Jules Lorenzo), Migration of the Animals inspired by Dahlov Ipcar (Teaching Artist Evelyn Beliveau), Don't Leave Home Without inspired by Daniel Arsham (Teaching Artist Christopher Allen) and A Train Through Time (Teaching Artist Evelyn Beliveau).
Our docents were outstanding - Kyle, Hattie, Parv, Biswajith, Nitiya, Angel and Abdul were well prepared, eloquent, oft-times comical, and great at adding personal touches to their commentaries. They gave tours from 10:15AM to 2:00PM with very few breaks in between. A tableful of snacks and drinks helped - and they did eat their lunches - but otherwise were standing, touring, explaining, and working extremely well together for hours.
Our beyond excellent ART YARD team of Evelyn, Simone, Nick, and Chris pitched in wherever necessary (including scrubbing paint off the gallery floor!) and answering questions from the many students who visited.
I was a bit concerned that having the Animals In Animation project shown on a large smartboard would distract visitors from the other projects - I originally wanted the projection to be shown on something the size of an iPad - but I surely was wrong. It did not, at all, diminish or detract from any of the other beautiful works in the gallery. The tours flowed smoothly - with a docent stationed at every project.
Amongst some of our visitors from the JC Board of Education were Kristin Mataliano (Supervisor of Gifted and Talented Students), April Fowler-Hogan, Krisitin Guarini, Grace Guandique, Tanya Carneiro Velez, and Norman Castro (Instructional Specialists), and Anna Boscarino (Director of Technology) - and more!
As always, Principal Joseph Apruzesse and Assistant Principal Lauren Faccone were in attendance with their never ending support and praise for our program.
Docent Kyle Gonzalez closed his tours of the tenement project each time with a moving statement very relevant to our theme of Migration: "exhibiting the tenements closely together helps represent that, even if being far away from your first home, being together can make a community strong".
But it was Kyle's closing remarks, when he was stationed at the shoes project, that put everything we do at Art Yard into perspective: "you can really see how different the shoes are, and as I like to say, art is a projection of the SOLE".
I couldn't help but think, when it was all over, of how Carol Burnett ended each of her shows (back in the 1970's) by singing "I'm so glad we had this time together....."
Happy Summer to all at PS 6."
Celebrating Our Graduates!
This week at AYB, the energy was electric as we celebrated a massive milestone for one of our own. Join us in sending a huge congratulations to AYB Artist Chace Mondesir on graduating from middle school!
AYB Artist Shellorne Smith, mother of Chace, writes: “Chace first walked through our doors in 2024 as a staple of our Tuesday afternoon classes. From day one, he brought a unique spark to the studio. If you’ve spent any time in the Tuesday session over the last couple of years, you know that everyone always looked forward to seeing what Chace was working on. A true innovator, his incredible 3D artwork consistently blew us away and challenged the boundaries of what our young artists could create.
But Chace didn’t just bring his own creativity to the table; he lifted up the entire class. He is known across Art Yard for giving incredibly thoughtful, constructive, and supportive feedback to his peers during critiques, helping everyone around him grow as artists.
To cap off his incredible middle school journey, Chace shared his final AYB project with the class: a stunning self-portrait.
True to form, the piece perfectly captures his growth, technical skill, and the distinct artistic voice he has developed during his time with us. It was the perfect bittersweet finale to his Tuesday evening AYB Advanced Studio legacy.”
Chace has been such an integral part of the Advanced Studio in-person culture. His creativity and kindness will be missed, but we can't wait to see the incredible things he accomplishes in high school! Chace, we are so incredibly proud of you. Thank you for sharing your art, your insight, and your time with us. Cheers to the next chapter—keep creating!
Other Art News
AYB Teaching Artist and Visual Arts Specialist Fatima Traore celebrated the 10th Anniversary of Success Academy's Visual Arts Showcase with the program's most successful exhibition to date. Hosted at White Space Gallery in Chelsea, the three-day event featured over 450 accepted artworks and welcomed record-breaking attendance, with visitor numbers more than doubling from previous years.
As curator and leader of the showcase, Fatima oversaw the selection and presentation of scholar artwork while introducing new initiatives, including an Artist Talk featuring elementary, middle, and high school scholars, a scholar docent program, and the Audience Choice Awards. Winning artworks will be displayed at the new BXK-12 Campus and Network offices.
This milestone event also coincides with Fatima's third year leading the Visual Arts Team, reflecting her continued commitment to elevating scholar voice, creativity, and artistic excellence across the network.
Congratulations Fatima!!!
AYB Artist Travis Pereira turns beachcombing into fodder for his latest work of art! Travis transformed a collection of carefully selected seashells into an elegant and functional painter’s palette. Equal parts sculpture, tool, and beach treasure, Travis’s shell palette is a beautiful example of how creative thinking can transform the everyday into something extraordinary.
AYB Artist Flo Kiniffo-Neven du Mont has been with family in France. He shares some deeply moving new artwork, both mixed-media painting and collage, created during a time of family transition.
Florian Kiniffo-Neven du Mont, Drawing and Collage, 2026
AYB Teaching Artist Rachel Wren invites us to join her Thursday June 11, 5pm at at Rick Wester Fine Art, 526 W 26 St, Chelsea for an artists talk.
Reminder AYB Artist Evelyn Beliveau has work included in The Ordinary, a Pride Month group exhibition on view at Collective Z, 325 Broome Street, 1W, New York (Lower East Side) Wednesday-Saturday, 1–6pm through June 30.
❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜
