Event | ArtW Global Commemorates the Fifth Anniversary of Hurricane Sandy with WATERSHED Red Hook

NYFA will participate in the large-scale public art project and public forum, taking place on October 26 and 28, 2017, in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

On October 26 and 28 at Red Hook Library, The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) will participate in WATERSHED Red Hook, a large-scale public art project and public forum presented by ArtW Global in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy and in collaboration with The Fifth Avenue Committee’s “Turning the Tide Environmental Justice Initiative,” a community-based collaboration for New York City Housing Authority residents who live in the Gowanus and Red Hook Houses. WATERSHED Red Hook will raise awareness and continue community dialogues regarding the climate change realities of the watershed, waterfront, and mixed-use community of Red Hook, Brooklyn.

The public art project will be realized by internationally-recognized, Brooklyn-based NYFA affiliated artist Anita Glesta on the sidewalk outside of Red Hook Library (7 Wolcott Street at Dwight Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn 11231) on Thursday, October 26 from 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM (Rain Date: Saturday, October 28, 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM). The site-specific work will transform the sidewalk of the library into a virtual seascape, where viewers are brought into dialogue with each other and their surroundings.

In tandem, speakers including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Glesta, NYFA Executive Director Michael L. Royce, and NYFA Board Member and ArtW Global Founder Marjorie W. Martay will deliver short remarks around climate change from various community-centric perspectives inside the library on Thursday, October 26 from 6:00 – 8:00 PM. Deputy Brooklyn Borough President Diana Reyna, NYFA Board Chair Judith K. Brodsky, community advocates, and design and sustainability experts will continue the conversation in a round table discussion at the library, led by Alexandros Washburn, Founding Director of the Center for Coastal Resilience and Urban Xcellence (CRUX) at Stevens Institute of Technology, on Saturday, October 28 from 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM. From 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM, ROODGALLERY (373 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn 11231) will present an exhibition of Glesta’s prints, drawings, and a projection of WATERSHED (on through November 4). All events are free and open to the public (more below).

“Red Hook has felt the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, and the succession of hurricanes across the Caribbean and the Southeast United States reminds us that the ‘new normal’ is the unprecedented destruction wrought by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria,” said Glesta, a third-generation Brooklynite. “My goal in creating WATERSHED is to create a conversation that inspires action to help mitigate the effects of future storms in affected communities like Red Hook,” she added.

Glesta, a 2002 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Architecture/Environmental Structures and 9/11 New York Arts Recovery Fund recipient (administered by NYFA) whose work has been Fiscally Sponsored through NYFA, is informed by the physical properties of a site, as well as by its traces of human history. Her realized works encompass numerous artistic approaches, from object-making to time-based installation sculpture and digital works, including the creation of mediascapes and actual landscapes. Glesta’s Red Hook installation is a continuation of her WATERSHED series, a public art/public space initiative that highlights how climate change is impacting peoples’ lives in intimate ways. In September 2015, WATERSHED was projected onto the face of the National Theatre in London, England, and in April 2016, WATERSHED was viewed as an immersive video production covering the entire floor of the lobby of the New York Customs House on Ellis Island.

Since 1971, NYFA has provided working artists and emerging arts organizations with the concrete resources that they need to survive. After Hurricane Sandy, NYFA administered a Hurricane Sandy Emergency Relief Fund for individual artists that was supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Lambent Foundation. The vast majority of grants ranged from $1,000 to $5,000 and were meant to assist artists who experienced damage or loss as a result of the hurricane.

Title: WATERSHED at Red Hook Library
Date and Time: Thursday, October 26, 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Rain Date: Saturday, October 28, 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Location: 7 Wolcott Street at Dwight Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Cost: Free and open to the public
About: Debut of public art project by internationally-recognized, Brooklyn-based NYFA affiliated artist Anita Glesta. The site-specific work will transform the sidewalk outside the library into a virtual seascape where viewers are brought into dialogue with each other and their surroundings.

Title: Opening Remarks at Red Hook Library
Date and Time: Thursday, October 26, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: 7 Wolcott Street at Dwight Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Cost: Free and open to the public
Participants:

• Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President
• Karen Blondel, Fifth Avenue Committee, T3 Turning the Tide Environmental Justice Community Organizer
• Brian Filiatraut, Director of Sustainability, Poly Prep Country Day
• Anita Glesta, NYFA Affiliated Artist
• William Kenworthey, Principal, Region Head of Planning, HOK
• Marjorie W. Martay, NYFA Board Member and Founder/Director ArtW Global
• Carlos Menchaca, City Councilman District 38
• Michael L. Royce, Executive Director, NYFA
• Carolina Salguero, Founder/Director, PortSide NewYork
• Alexandros Washburn, Founding Director of the Center for Coastal Resilience and Urban Xcellence (CRUX) at Stevens Institute of Technology
• Dan Wiley, Community Coordinator, Office of Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez

Title: Round Table Discussion at Red Hook Library
Date and Time: Saturday, October 28, 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Location: 7 Wolcott Street at Dwight Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Cost: Free and open to the public
Participants:

Moderated by Alexandros Washburn, Founding Director of the Center for Coastal Resilience and Urban Xcellence (CRUX) at Stevens Institute of Technology

• Karen Blondel, Fifth Avenue Committee, T3 Turning the Tide Environmental Justice Community Organizer
• Judith K. Brodsky, Chairperson, NYFA
• Ann Goodman, Author, Adapting to Change: The Business of Climate Resilience
• Vlada Kenniff, Director of Sustainability Programs, NYCHA
  
• William Kenworthey, Principal, Region Head of Planning, HOK
• Dana Kochnower, Community Outreach and Senior Policy Advisor, NYC Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resilience
• Paul Mankiewicz, Visiting Associate Professor, Pratt Institute, and Executive Director of the Gaia Institute      
• Carlos Menchaca, City Councilman District 38
• Thaddeus Pawlowski, Associate Urban Designer for the Office of Chief Urban Designer of the City of New York, Department of City Planning
• Diana Reyna, Deputy Brooklyn Borough President
• Carolina Salguero, Founder/Director, PortSide NewYork
• Aaron Scheinwald, Coordinating Attorney – Storm Response Unit, New York Legal Assistance Group (NLAG)
• Dan Wiley, Community Coordinator, Office of Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez
• Jason E. Smerdon, Associate Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Title: WATERSHED at ROODGALLERY
Date and Time: Saturday, October 28, 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Location: 373 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn 11231
Cost: Free and open to the public
About: ROODGALLERY will present an expanded look at Glesta’s WATERSHED series by exhibiting prints, drawings, and a projection from the project. The exhibition will be on view through November 4, 2017 (gallery hours by appointment).

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Images from top: Still from Anita Glesta’s WATERSHED installation at New York Customs House on Ellis Island, April 2016; Rendering of Anita Glesta’s forthcoming WATERSHED installation at Red Hook Library; and still from Anita Glesta’s WATERSHED installation at New York Customs House on Ellis Island, April 2016