Re-Imagine the Space Under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway
/I am very disappointed to say that I will be in California for a work event this weekend, and won't be able to attend this awesomely creative community workshop! Please report back if you attend, and help reinvent the wasteland that is the space under the BQE!
CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN, April 20, 2009—The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership and Storefront for Art and Architecture will host a community workshop in the space under the BQE on Park Avenue at Washington Avenue on Saturday, April 25th from 3-4:30pm inside SpaceBuster, a temporary public art installation created by German architecture firm raumlaborBerlin. The Partnership invites residents and other stakeholders to participate by brainstorming creative permanent and temporary uses and physical improvements with the help of volunteer facilitators from Pratt Institute’s Planning program. The event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are required, as space is limited.
The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership and Storefront for Art and Architecture bring Spacebuster, a mobile inflatable art installation, to the Wallabout area of Clinton Hill on Saturday, April 25th, to help kick off a community planning process for the future of the area under the BQE. Spacebuster, created by the Berlin-based architecture collective raumlaborberlin, is designed to temporarily occupy open urban spaces such as squares, parking lots, and green spaces with a primary function to serve as a location for community events. Join the Partnership under the BQE, to submit your ideas for short- and long-term physical improvements, temporary or permanent programming ideas, or anything that will enhance the space, which has long been regarded as an eyesore in the community. The event is free but space is limited, so RSVPs are requested at www.myrtleavenue.org if you plan to attend.
“SpaceBuster provides the perfect setting for this workshop, allowing us to bring people together in the underutilized space at the center of this discussion,” explains Meredith Phillips Almeida, the Partnership’s Director of Community Development. The pavilion itself is comprised of an inflatable bubble-like dome that emerges from its self-contained compressor housing, and expands and organically adjusts to its surroundings, like a highway overpass. The material is a sturdy, specially-designed translucent plastic, allowing the varying events taking place inside of the shelter to be entirely visible from the outside and likewise the exterior environments become the events’ backdrops. This is the most recent project under the Partnership’s Arts & Enterprise Initiative, a multi-faceted program to establish the avenue as an access point to cultural activities for community members of diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Through efforts to bring public sculpture, art installations, studio art, and creative street furniture elements to the public spaces and sidewalks of the district, the Initiative aims to increase access to art for the entire community, and to support small business by driving foot traffic to the commercial corridor.
Sponsored by Storefront for Art and Architecture, the SpaceBuster will travel throughout New York City hosting various community events from April 17th to the April 26th. Founded in 1982, Storefront for Art and Architecture is a nonprofit organization committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design. As a public forum for emerging voices, Storefront explores vital issues in art and architecture with the intent of increasing awareness of and interest in contemporary design. For the complete SpaceBuster schedule visit www.storefrontnews.org.
Contact:
Meredith Phillips Almeida, Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, (718) 230-1689 or meredith@myrtleavenue.org
Joseph Grima, Storefront for Art & Architecture, 212.431.5755 or jg@storefrontnews.org