A plethora of local groups gets together to plan a plethora of local events, Star Review

ArtBridge, Star Review

A plethora of local groups gets together to plan a plethora of local events, Star Review

In the middle of October, there was an art celebration at Coffey Park for two new art projects that are being displayed around the Red Hook East Houses.

The first one is titled American Dream and was done by photographer Caroline Mardok. This project is located at 590 Clinton Street.

The portraits are of PS 15 students and they portray the Red Hook Houses while addressing climate change. The students were placed in various positions in relation to the buildings.

There was one where a kid had one foot on the building in a playful pose and another where a girl’s face could be seen above the building. Mardok did six workshops of 1.5 hours each with the third grade students.

The other one is the Radiance project that was done by the PTSD collective. It was led by Tony Schloss and Paul Kamuf and the diamond themed project is located at Mill and Hicks and along Centre Mall between Hicks and Bush Streets.

At the art celebration in Coffey Park, RHI had snacks and a table with information about GED classes and information about the Red Hook Harvest Festival that was going to have pumpkins, music and games.

Pioneer Works had a table that had different color cloth and materials so that people could add to the big community quilt that is being made to commemorate the Hurricane Sandy 10-year anniversary. People also had the option to add to the quilt with a story or photo via a QR code.

There was a table at the art celebration where people had an opportunity to draw and express themselves. Some people drew flowers, trees, animals and someone wrote fully fund Red Hook Houses with a hashtag.

Mz. Hunyz Mobile Kitchen provided food. Their slogan is, “Home Cooked Meals at Your Fingertips.”

They had jerk chicken, collard greens, rice and salad. They is a Red Hook business that has a food truck on Columbia Street and also caters.

The shimmering facets of each mosaic diamond symbolizes the work of many dedicated individuals including the Youth Organizers at Red Hook Initiative. There were five youth organizers who worked with Schloss and Kamuf to help make this happen and make their ideas become reality.

Mardok collaborated with third grade students at PS 15 with the support of Pioneer Works. The artists, Kamuf and Schloss, and Mardok, were chosen by the community through an interview process.

These artworks that have been designed for the Red Hook East Houses were supported by a program called City Artist Corps: Bridging the Divide.

ArtBridge, Red Hook Initiative, Pioneer Works and PS 15 collaborated to make sure this program reached community interests and residents.

The PTSD Collective stands for Paul and Tony Sign Design. It also has deeper meaning since Schloss thinks that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is relevant to the time we are in.

“A lot of people are recovering from COVID, war and all the tension in America, so it is sort of a reaction to that,” Schloss said about the name. “Calling out all the stress everybody is under these days. And trying to be a response, something positive.”

In the summer of 2021, the two artists started working together with the  goal of doing projects on fences in the urban environment.

They did a design for a developer in Williamsburg on the waterfront but it was not able to be installed. This is their first major project.

Read more at: The Star Revue



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