Bushwick and the rest of the city came out in full force for last Friday’s Beat Nite: All-Stars Edition. Bushwick Daily photographer Erik DuRon and I were lucky enough to be included on an exclusive “Beat Nite Party Bus” which took a few dozen reporters (including Hrag Vartanian, Mostafa Heddaya, and Jillian Steinhauer of hyperallergic, and members of the New Criterion), the event’s curator James Panero, and several other friends of Norte Maar Gallery, who organized the event, on a joyride tour of all the galleries. The night became a tour of nonstop excitement that took us all over the neighborhood, enabling many newcomers to venture to new galleries and alternative art spaces that they had never seen before. In addition to the established galleries Norte Maar, Schema Projects, Centotto, Valentine and Outpost Artist Resources, the tour also included new spaces such as Lorimoto Gallery, Silver Projects, and the new home of Storefront Bushwick at Ten Eyck Street.
Despite fears that the tour would be too spread out, preventing many gallery-goers from experiencing all of the spaces on foot, sentiments from visitors seemed to be unanimously positive with most people we spoke to saying they made it to at least 6 or 7 of the 10 participating spaces. Many people new the Bushwick art scene were thrilled to see so much incredible art in such a sort amount of time. James Panero, the curator of this edition of Beat Nite, was equally satisfied with the event and told me how great he thought it was that the event brought so many new faces to the neighborhood. He expressed how he felt that Bushwick can’t exist separately from the rest of the New York art scene; we need more collectors, art lovers, and artists from other areas of the city to come see how mature the scene here really is. James, I couldn’t agree with you more!
Beat Nite: All-Stars Edition was a chance for people to see the true diversity of the Bushwick art scene; from niche galleries that explore one specific medium, like Silver Projects, which focuses on photography, to exciting artist residencies spaces, like Outpost Artists Resource that provides space and residencies for video and sound artists. The event marked the opening of the new home for Theodore: Art, now on the main level of the 56 Bogart Building, and Storefront’s new space on Ten Eyck. The art crawl took us on a veritable treasure hunt to every corner of Bushwick, from the gallery spaces in the residential areas of the Bushwick/Ridgewood border to the large industrial scape of Northern Bushwick, including the expansive and airy spaces like Signal. The night ended perfectly with a quintessentially Bushwick after party at English Kills Gallery, with people swapping stories from the night and drinking beer from the event sponsor Brooklyn Brewery.
If you missed the event, here are some of the sights from Friday!
Entering Schema Projects
