By Katarina Hybenova
Merry Friday, peeps! It’s been almost a year, since the greatest event in our town, Bushwick Open Studios 2011! All volunteer organization Arts in Bushwick is bracing itself for another giant, self-curated festival. Here is a checklist of 10 things you should before the madness begins.
#1 BOS were loosely born of Brooklyn Art Project or BAP, which was an art festival held annually in early 2000s featuring art, video, live music and DJs. This year Bushwick Open Studios are celebrating their 6 years of existance! Happy birthday!
#2 This year’s BOS will be held on June 1,2 and 3!
#3 BOS is a self-curated festival; you won’t be a subject to any scrutiny or submission process in order to get in. All you need to do is to register and you’re in!
#4 Apropos registration, there are two parts to it. Firstly, you need to attend one of the mixers that Arts in Bushwick is organizing. The first one took place this past Wednesday at The Bodega, and the next one is at Little Skips on April 5 at 8pm. Here you will obtain a registration number that you will fill out when registering online. Online registration begins on April 1, i.e. this Sunday!
#5 Arts in Bushwick make beautiful maps of all the participating studios and art spaces. You will be able to pick it up at various Bushwick locations, but mainly at one of the hubs, English Kills gallery, Northeast Kingdom restaurant, Outpost Artist Resources, AIRPLANE gallery, cafe Little Skips and Diana Jones Senior Center.
#6 In addition to good all physical map, Arts in Bushwick is preparing a smart phone application to help you navigate through hundreds of studios. How awesome is that! Big time! An app will be very helpful!
#7 The boundaries of BOS don’t include only Bushwick. You are eligible to participate and register your studio or a gallery located in East Williamsburg, Ridgewood, Bed-Stuy and Maspeth. The precise boundaries can be found here.
#8 In order to keep going and to cover the cost of the organization, participating spaces are required to donate a small amount of $35. If you can’t pay, you can volunteer for 5 hours before or during the festival instead.
#9 You can be part of this amazing festival too! Arts in Bushwick is always looking for volunteers and it’s only up to you how much you wish to be involved. That’s sort of the most amazing thing about the festival. It is a festival of all of us! Organized by Bushwick for Bushwick to shine!
#10 The nearest opportunity to volunteer involves pizza at Norte Maar! On Saturday, Arts in Bushwick is inviting everyone to help them flyering. Here is the Flyering Day Schedule:
1:30pm-3:30pm: Pick up flyers from Norte Maar (83 Wyckoff Ave., #1B)
3:30pm-5:00pm: Flyering!
5:00pm-6:00pm: Pizza at Norte Maar
Don’t forget to RSVP so that the guys have an idea how many people to expect.