Gathering Neighbors’ Dreams for a Shabby Playground

By CARA BUCKLEY, The New York Times
Published: October 27, 2006

If 11-year-old Shuwen Li had her say, which she does, her local playground would be radically different from its current sorry state. It would have swings. It would not smell like urine. Its ground would not be patchy and uneven, nor would it trip up children, twisting ankles and bloodying knees.

Perched on peeling playground equipment, students from Middle School 131 collaborated on ways to improve the public space.

Indeed, the Hester Street playground in Sara D. Roosevelt Park, a long, skinny park running through Chinatown, has known better decades. It was built in 1987 with TimberForm, a type of wood once popular in playground making, but which splinters over time. Over the years, as other pockets of the park were overhauled, the Hester Street playground succumbed to the perils of aging, cracking and chipping until it was finally deemed obsolete.

But now the Hester Street playground is about to undergo a major overhaul, using $4.75 million allocated by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Nearby ball courts will be renovated as part of the project, too. And just about all those who use the park — schoolchildren, longtime residents, new immigrants unused to making their voices heard — have been urged to weigh in on what they envision for the space.

To continue reading the full article text, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/27/nyregion/27park.html?ex=1162875600&en=3a702e88bbba3846&ei=5070

The Hester Street Collaborative is a 2005 Grants for Art in Public
Spaces grantee and a 2006 Promotion Grant recipient.

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Our friends at World Financial Center have an excellent Fall lineup of arts events including Stephen Petronio Company and Racoco Productions.

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On October 28, join the artist on a journey from the world’s financial capital to the old custom house, in a work hosted by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Franklin Furnace. The artist Nicolás Dumit Estévez sets out on a pilgrimmage in the morning from LMCC's 125 Maiden Lane headquarters and arrives at 12noon at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, George Gustav Heye Center, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, One Bowling Green.

Estévez will travel on his knees from LMCC to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, carrying in his hands a piece of casabe, a type of bread prepared from the cassava root, thus transporting a legacy of the Caribbean Taíno culture to be presented as a gift to the institution. The museum is located at the southern end of the Wiechquaekeck Trail, an old Algonquian trade route, in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House. The Custom House, designed by Cass Gilbert (1959-1934) and opened in 1907, once collected revenues for the Port of New York, then the country’s most prosperous trade center. The journey comes to an end when a Museum staff member signs the passport he carries.

LMCC and Franklin Furnace are proud to partner on interdisciplinary artist Estévez’s two-year performance series For Art’s Sake. Several arduous and pious pilgrimages enacted by Estévez were conceived as a part of the LMCC’s Workspace Residency Program and the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art.

This series of pilgrimages reverses the relationship between art and religion, modeling his piece after the Catholic El Camino de Compostela in Spain, where devotees travel to the tomb of St James. In this project, religion becomes a tool in the service of art as the artist endures separate journeys that begin in Lower Manhattan and conclude at seven museums.

For more information, visit http://www.lmcc.net/art/programs/2006.10.29forartssake/index.html

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The Maiden Lane Exhibition Space, The Redhead Gallery, LMCC and Pace Digital Gallery all located in Lower Manhattan, have joined opening forces on Friday, October 20, 2006

“Satellite Valencia – a program of North American videos for Valencia, Spain”
Pace Digital Gallery 163 William Street
Reception and discussion, Friday October 20, 2006 from 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM

“Beautiful Discovery: The work of Joe Ben Plummer”
Redhead Gallery LMCC, 125 Maiden Lane, 2nd Floor
Reception, Friday October 20, 2006 from 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

“Callyann Casteel – Burger Gore and the Blackwater Nasties”
Maiden Lane Exhibition, 125 Maiden Lane, Groundfloor
Reception and Performance, Friday October 20, 2006 from 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Callyann Casteel – Burger Gore and the Blackwater Nasties: this show will involve costumes spanning over the last six years of Callyann Casteel’s work in performance and soft sculpture. From the earliest gang of oblivious fanciful hamburgers to the most resent daunting towers of pattern, horns, limbs, chains and blood. All of theses characters posses a whimsical and often dark quality, causing there performance to be funny, mildly gory, at times just plain beautiful. Some of them use endurance and naivety, some concentrate on frustration, and others emit a sense of intimidating malevolence. Interacting with each other, this group of costumes intends to estrange the lobby of 125 Maiden Lane, in a performance Callyann Casteel is calling "Burger Gore and the Backwater Nasties".

Callyann Casteel will perform at the reception at 5:30 PM and at 7: 30 PM

Callyann Casteel earned a BFA in Printmaking from Kansas City Art Institute in 2002. She attended Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, 1996-97, and Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, 1998. Casteel’s drawings and soft sculptures – including puppets and life-sized costumes worn for public performances – have been exhibited at Johnson County Community College Gallery of Art, Telephonebooth Gallery, Urban Cultural Project’s Bank Gallery, Fahrenheit Gallery, The Next Space, and the H&R Block Artspace at Kansas City Art Institute. Callyann Casteel lives and works in Kansas City . Callyann Casteel is the recipient of the 2005 Charlotte Street Award and she participated in the Art Omi International Artists’ Residency Program 2006.

The exhibition Callyann Casteel – Burger Gore and the Blackwater Nasties is curated by Elisabeth Akkerman, curator of The Francis J. Greenburger Collection, New York.

The exhibition was made possible with the generous support of Time Equities Inc. .

Maiden Lane Exhibition Space
125 Maiden Lane (btw. Water and Pearl Streets) New York City, NY 100038
Info: 1-212-206.6061, Daily from 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM

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Join our good friends at Poets House for the debut of:

Branching Out NYC:three extraordinary talks by great poets
@ Tribeca Performing Arts Center at BMCC
199 Chambers Street, New York CityTuesday, October 17, 7:00 pm
Martín Espada on Pablo NerudaTuesday, November 14, 7:00 pm
Edward Hirsch on Federico Garcia LorcaTuesday, December 12, 7:00 pm
Elizabeth Alexander on Gwendolyn Brooks

Tuesday, October 17, 7:00 pm
Martín Espada on Pablo NerudaPreeminent Latino poet and scholar Martín Espada will explore the political evolution of the beloved Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Espada will integrate inspiring recitations of Neruda's work into a remarkable narrative of Neruda's lifelong political struggle. Cosponsored by the Poetry Society of America and the Tribeca Performing Arts Center at BMCC.Tribeca Performing Arts Center
Borough of Manhattan Community College
199 Chambers Street
$10/ Free to Poets House and PSA Members

Tuesday, November 14, 7:00 pm
Edward Hirsch on Federico Garcia LorcaEdward Hirsch (the author of such acclaimed books as Wild Gratitude and How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry) will offer a passionate reexamination of Federico Garcia Lorca's artistic sources, complex friendships, and emotional and intellectual crises. Cosponsored by the Poetry Society of America and the Tribeca Performing Arts Center at BMCC.Tribeca Performing Arts Center
Borough of Manhattan Community College
199 Chambers Street
$10/ Free to Poets House and PSA Members

Tuesday, December 12, 7:00 pm
Elizabeth Alexander on Gwendolyn BrooksElizabeth Alexander (the distinguished author of The Venus Hottentot, American Sublime, and Black Interior) will celebrate Gwendolyn Brooks' career as a model of art evolving in response to dramatic historical, political, and aesthetic challenges. Cosponsored by the Poetry Society of America and the Tribeca Performing Arts Center at BMCC.Tribeca Performing Arts Center
Borough of Manhattan Community College
199 Chambers Street
$10/ Free to Poets House and PSA Members

Poets House is a 45,000-volume poetry library and literary center that invites poets and the public to step into the living tradition of poetry. Poets House's ever-expanding archive of books, journals, chapbooks, audiotapes, videos and electronic media is one of the most comprehensive open-access collections of poetry in the United States. The Reading Room is free and open to the public.Poets House, 72 Spring Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10012
Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 11:00 am-7:00 pm
& Saturday, 1:00 pm-6:00 pm
Children's Reading Room: Saturday, 11:00 am-1:00 pm
Phone: (212) 431-7920

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Artist Albert Heta (Kosovo) will present views of his new public space interventions and appropriations, followed by a question and answer session led by independent curator Chris Reitz (New York). This fall Albert Heta is hosted by LMCC as part of a CEC ArtsLink residency. Join them in conversation. Talk organized by Art in General, Project Space 79 Walker Street New York, NY 10013

For more information about the talk visit: www.artingeneral.org
For more information about Albert Heta visit: www.lmcc.net/art/residencies/120broadway/2006.9/fellows/heta/index.html

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So you think one day you could run a non-profit or arts organization? Find out just how easy it is by working in LMCC’s executive office. Lounge around in plush leather swivel chairs, go for lunches and roof-top cocktail parties on your expense account, breeze in and out of meetings with other top execs while swapping stories about yachting weekends.

Also, work damn hard on anything and everything that could possibly drop onto your mahogany, and get a front-row view of arts management, cultural policy, and arts programming in Lower Manhattan and beyond, working directly with the President, Chief of Staff and Executive Assistant.

We need/You are:

* A smart, hardworking person with superior communication skills.
* A student interested in non-profit management, public policy, arts management, and so on.
* Keen to get involved in all aspects of a busy and dynamic arts organization.

Interns work 15-20 hours/week and receive a stipend of $250/month. Other perks abound. Send a resume and cover letter (stating availability) to Ben at bkerrick@lmcc.net

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Save the Date...

October 6-14, 2006

Prominent composers, sound artists and environmentalists from around the world converge in downtown New York to bring you powerful and singular perspectives on our fast vanishing ecosystems. Experience natural and man-made environments through concerts, installations, public art and panel discussions.

Click Here for Schedule of Events: http://www.eartotheearth.org/schedule.html

Featuring sound art, music and images by Alvin Curran, Steven Feld, Luc Ferrari, Joan La Barbara, Annea Lockwood, Laurie Spiegel, Morton Subotnick, Hildegard Westerkamp, Iannis Xenakis, and many others.

Click here for artist bios: http://www.eartotheearth.org/artists/index.html

Installations, receptions and panel discussions are free but with limited seating. Reservations are highly recommended. Concerts are $10 each or $35 for a festival pass for all 8 concerts.

Click here for reservations and tickets: http:// www.eartotheearth.org/joinus.html

For priority seating and other benefits, click here: http://www.eartotheearth.org/donations.html

Concerts, installations and discussions take place at various downtown venues including:

* 3-Legged Dog Arts & Technology Center
* Judson Church
* Winter Garden at the World Financial Center
* Elevated Acre at 55 Water Street

Click here for directions to venues:

For more information go to http://www.eartotheearth.org

Ear to the Earth is presented by



Ear to the Earth is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, with additional funds from the French-American Fund for Contemporary Music and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Grants for Art in Public Spaces.

eartotheearth@emf.org

(888)(888)749-9998 or (518)434-4110

PO Box 8748
Albany NY 12208
USA

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If you liked our Sitelines series of free public performance and dace downtown, you might be interested in this upcoming symposium on site-specific performance.

Featuring our own Nolini Barretto - curator of Sitelines!

http://web.gc.cuny.edu/mestc/programs/fall06/site-specific_performance.htm

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