Ready, Steady, GO!

Combining crowdsourcing with the perennial trend of participatory art, GO Brooklyn, which will debut this weekend in New York’s most populous borough, is an attempt to produce a “community curated open studio project.” The pilot program is an experimental exhibition organized by The Brooklyn Museum, made capable through collaboration with a host of volunteer delegates coordinating the composite neighborhoods. In order to participate, you must be an artist with a registered studio or a registered voter who can “check-in” at any given location via an Internet application. Participants can nominate up to three of their favorite artists, but only after checking in at a minimum of five studios. Nominations will be tallied from the GO Brooklyn I-phone app, text messages, or numeric codes assigned to each studio on the mobile website. Ten artists with the highest number of votes will be awarded a studio visit from a Brooklyn Museum curator to select work for an exhibition opening at the museum on December 1, 2012.

Despite the numerous (and somewhat exclusionary) parameters of the project, the website is surprisingly clean and well designed. Under the “explore” tab, 12 artists are featured from a selection of randomly chosen studios (out of hundreds of registered locations) and users can also search with a keyword or name. Results are filterable by location, accessibility, and/or medium. The best feature? Registrants can save noteworthy entries to a sharable itinerary list to help organize (and remember) their path.

Over 1750 studios are signed up for GO Brooklyn, making it nearly impossible for visitors to hit every one in the two-day span. To help intimidated art-seekers get started, here is a link to my own tentative itinerary (subject to change based on ambition level and reliability of public transportation in Brooklyn, which, on any given weekend, is spotty at best.)

I am curious to explore studios in the Navy Yard, one of the more historic artist enclaves in Brooklyn. It’s a bit off the beaten path, but well worth the visit in my opinion: waterfront views of Manhattan’s skyline, spacious studios, and an establishment of accomplished, mature artists. BLDG 92, located at 63 Flushing, just opened a new visitor center, exhibition space, and coffee spot, in addition to free shuttle service from Downtown Brooklyn. Don’t miss: John King‘s “graphite fields of shading that precisely describe volume and light“, Myrna Gordon‘s organic sculptures, and Poby’s World.

Next on my list are some studios in the Gowanus and Redhook area (with an upcoming Open Studios of its own this October, Gowanus is the area surrounding the canal just southeast of Red Hook), but I am most excited to see Brian Kenny‘s sculptures (I love anything involving taxonomy, shadow boxes and/or miniatures); the figurative paintings of Charles Miller; and Ethan Greenbaum’s refined landscapes, to name a few on my list.

FYI, Kenny’s location – Screwball Studios at 183 Lorraine St. – is home to numerous other GO Brooklyn-registered artists that look worthy of a visit.

If I’m feeling very ambitious, I may try and make it out to some lesser-known areas (for art studios, at least) like Coney Island/Brighton Beach/Sheepshead Bay Area. I want to see Gerard Barbot’s quirky found-object pieces and check out what an enamel shop looks like at Howard Eisman’s studio.

The plan is to end up in Greenpoint at the end of the day, which is my favorite neighborhood in Brooklyn (after Bushwick of course) because it is home to Five Leaves, Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, Beloved, and several friends’ apartments. Romanian painter Dan Sabau will opens his studio doors, as well as video and performance artist Bruce McClure. I’m also hoping to squeeze in a visit to Gabriela Salazar space to see some of her large-scale sculptures in situ.

Check back next week for a recap of the weekend.

By Katarina Hybenova

Yesteryear beach. (Photo by the author)

Summer doesn’t end just because the calendar says it’s Labor Day on Monday. But one has to admit that it certainly feels a little different. Whether you like it or not it’s time to wake up from the summer romantic dreaming and GO! …or drift…

While the past weeks floated by sweetly in the form of watermelons and on tops of the roof, the upcoming week is filling me with great expectations and just a (lil), pointy anxiety as is always the case when the number of art openings in the hood exceeds 10. Not only is virtually every gallery in Bushwick having an opening, it’s also a time for two bigger events to happen. Go! Brooklyn and citydrift will both happen next weekend.

Go! Brooklyn is an all Brooklyn open studio event organized by Brooklyn Museum. “Open your studio and wait for the votes from your visitors,” says Brooklyn Museum. “If enough votes are casted, and if you’re lucky, you might get a show at Brooklyn Museum.” In other words, Brooklyn Museum says that you better send out at least 5 emails to your contact list; create that Facebook event and buy 6 bottles of Trader Joe’s wine, to ensure that people come and vote, because a lot is at stake. I have to appreciate the lesson in self-promotion Brooklyn Museum is trying to teach us here. Yes, it is important to let people know you exist because if they don’t know you exist, does it even matter that you create? Interesting conversation about Go! Brooklyn had this week Jen Hitchings with a married artist couple Jane Fine and James Esber, who have been collaborating for years and even share a studio, yet Jane decided to Go! and James decided not to Go!

…the whole “People’s Choice” award thing, a curated show, is a bit bogus and isn’t going to work, because not everyone gets the same foot traffic… - James Esber

It’s beautifully organized, and it’s not that we should’ve been a priority, but it was just a bunch of emails, and why didn’t anyone get some of us on the phone instead? Is their intention to make it a success and then in the next years everyone wants to be a part of it? – Jane Fine

On Monday, we had Peter Hopkins from The Bogart Salon and the brain behind another big event next week, citydrift write about the concept and his inspiration. In his essay he pronounced a couple of amazing quotes on creativity and innovation that I wish we all pondered a little longer than usual.

The lessons I learned from these and the other things I saw were, first, to look for “the future” in unlikely places, places most everyone else had decided weren’t worth paying attention to, and second, to not try to replicate other past successful platforms, but instead “let go” of pre-conceived ideas and let your mind…drift. – Peter Hopkins

I consider myself a Buddhist, and I like citydrift better. Much smaller budget, much smaller PR, much more concept to it. citydrift invites us to come to one of the participating galleries and join one of the drifts that will go on a walk around Bushwick. Each drift will consist of a small group of people, like 7 or 10, and will have more or less concept to it. What all the drifts will have in common is that you will be encouraged to experience, to perceive, to see, to feel, to drift… Whether it’s an intentionally placed art installation or an accidentally discovered beauty, citydrift is essentially a trip back to the beginning where we ask: Why art? Why feel? And most importantly, it places the emphasis on the experience of art that should bring joy, pleasure and happiness.  Because no matter what they tell you, a show at Brooklyn Museum will not bring you happiness. It will bring you societal recognition, but not happiness. Because happiness is your state of mind when you feel and create out of the pure desire of heart and the only approval that matters is your own.

Anyway, I wish you an amazing “last” summer weekend. Enjoy and next week, back to work!

By Sean Alday

I spoke with Lucia Rollow, a powerhouse organizer within the workaholic organization: Arts in Bushwick. It turns out that she wasn’t only sending out thousands of emails for Bushwick Open Studios, but also working behind the scenes for Go! Brooklyn and right in front at the Bushwick Community Darkroom among other things.

Taken from Facebook. Lucia (right) hosting a workshop at Bushwick Community Darkroom.

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