Several of us ventured out to Stapleton last month for the opening of an exhibit on public art proposals generated from the Design Trust for Public Space’s Future Culture project.
We enjoyed a fabulous sunset from the Staten Island Ferry before arriving at the Artspace @ Staten Island Arts gallery, located on in a ground floor space at URBY Staten Island.
Student Kazia Garvey described the exhibit as featuring “social, educational, and environmental focused projects from local artists and scholars, each taking a unique position in the effort to revitalize the area. Members of our studio were able to speak to John Schettino, a graphic designer and Design Trust Fellow who designed the exhibit and had conducted extensive research on the area. He was very insistent that the artistic community in the north shore was not properly served. My first impression of the north shore was that there is a lot of potential that was not being realized.” These insights are proving important to the housing proposal Kazia and her partner Isaac are designing this semester.
Soon after we arrived, the musicians behind “Sonic Gates,” a Future Culture pilot project, began performing on an array of unusual “sound sculpture” instruments.
Musicians from the Sonic Gates project performing at the opening.
Afterwards we ventured out to walk the studio sites. It was too dark for photographs; regardless, we formed an initial strong sense of the neighborhood – a place in transition, with tremendous potential for building a culture of community.
The Future Culture exhibit will be up until December 9, 2017.
June Williamson, CR Studio faculty
NYC Hous(e)ing: What's Missing? 