In the 15 years that followed the first iteration of Bushwick Open Studios in 2006, a lot has changed. Rents have gone up — the median rent increased from $1,060 in 2006 to $1,740 in 2019. And, while some well-established artists departed slowly for the galleries of Manhattan, some Manhattan galleries began popping up in Bushwick.

But there were still former warehouses and factories, and some of those were still filled with small studio spaces, all occupied with the loud and busy work of making colorful things. In entering, we are meant almost to catch the artist off-guard, paint still dripping off the unfinished canvas, the work itself an open conversation. Over a hundred such studios will open again to passersby this month, Sept. 17 through 19.

The event’s history weighs heavy on the mind of its central organizer, who took over the loosely volunteer-led organization around 2018. Jazo Brooklyn was invited to partner with the Open Studios earlier in the decade in order to give it more of a presence among young adults. Brooklyn (the organizer) operated a nonprofit called Educated Little Monsters, an idea she says began in 2013 as her and a group of kids practicing various art forms wherever they could find a spot. Within a few years of her involvement, almost everyone who ran Arts in Bushwick — the group that operated the open studios concept — would be gone and Brooklyn, the organizer, would remain.