Class #1 - Daniel Palmer

Hoovervilles: An Architectural and Cultural Analysis of Squatter Housing in the 1930s

/// Daniel talked about the ephemerial 'Hoovervilles' from the 1930's, looking at the styles of these somewhat incidental structures as well as how they slipped through the cracks of the bianary living systems which were in place. ///

     

Class #2 - Christhian Diaz + Fran Gallardo + YOU

Spanish Language Mixer

/// Christhian and Fran led us through a series of questions and basic language exercises which made us realize how much Spanish we already know and what we still have to learn. ///

     

AUGUST 16: Tompkins Square Park, East Village

Class #1 - Ed Woodham

Strange Makings

/// Ed gave us exercises in making the familiar strange with his class Strange Makings. We all got in touch with our inner performers as we engaged in these hilariously fun activities. ///

     

Ed Woodham is an artist, performer, curator, and producer. He is the founder and director for Art in Odd Places (AiOP) presenting visual and performance art in unexpected public spaces. AiOP also produces an annual festival along 14th Street in Manhattan, NYC, each October. AiOP aims to stretch the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations. www.artinoddplaces.org

///

Class #2 - Amy Whitaker

So Valuable It's Free

/// Amy led us through a witty talk about the relationship between value and price. She broke it down into five steps: Beret: Economics as an Art Project, Wax-on Wax-off: The Basics of Econ, Snark: The Economics of Information, Water: The Price of Public Goods + School: The Trillion Dollar Problem. ///

     

Amy Whitaker has an MBA and an MFA and loves to teach business as a creative practice. She is on the Art Business faculty at the Sotheby's Institute and at California College of the Arts, and lectures widely, giving workshops and talks at LMCC, Creative Capital, RISD, Williams, NYU, Google, Trade School, Occupy Wall Street, and Yale. Her first book Museum Legs was the freshman reading book at RISD in 2010.

///



AUGUST 9: Fort Greene Park, Fort Greene, Brooklyn

Class #1 - Lee Dares

Kites Fly

/// Lee showed us how to make our own D.I.Y. kites for cheap and we had a blast flying our decorated finished products around the park! ///

        

The Kite Collective aims to empower people through education at the local level with the belief that development of individual physical powers is necessary to move forward with global sustainability through social and environmental change. We work one-on-one with students using kite-making workshops as a platform to explore human interaction and physical theory in a collaborative setting.

Lee is a Canadian model, designer, and founder of the Kite Collective. Upon close observation, her left eye is both brown and blue. She graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology last year. Since then, she has been making kites almost every day. She hopes to apprentice with a sacred kite maker in Bali before she dies.

///

Class #2 - Whitni Roche

Emily Dickinson and Epistolary Poetics, a.k.a. Poetic Letter-Writing

/// Whitni gave us some background on Emily Dickinson and her choice to distribute or "publish" her work only through personal correspondance during her lifetime. We discussed the value of this form of poetic communication, and started work on our own poetic snail mail letter. ///

     

Whitni Roche loves exploring the city, writing (especially letters!), reading, music, and travel with friends. She is currently working at the Rudolf Steiner School on the Upper East Side as the High School Librarian. She researched Emily Dickinson and publication for one of her MA courses at La Sierra University in Riverside, CA two years ago, and has been fascinated by her ever since.

///

Class #3 - Parker Snowe

Consensus Decision Making

/// We defined consensus and discussed the process, including the do's and don't's of consensus. We then put our newly acquired knowledge to good use and came to a consensus decision about the best way and place to share a meal together. ///

     

Parker Snowe is an experienced trainer in consensus decision-making. He served as clerk of a Quaker Friends meeting for four years, where he led monthly business meetings using Quaker consensus. As director of the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship at Haverford College, he regularly conducts consensus training for college students.

///

AUGUST 2, Class #1 - Keith Schweitzer

Fourth Arts Block Walking Tour
East 4th St. and Bowery

/// Keith led us on a comprehensive tour of the East Village Cultural District, giving us a history to the murals and public works that are up today, and let us know a little bit of what is in store for local public art in the future! ///

     

Keith Schweitzer is a curator and public art organizer working in New York City and has been based in Chelsea for over 10 years. His high-profile collaborative exhibitions, events and installations combine internationally recognized artists, institutions and organizations with local emerging artists and site-specific themes. Keith is currently the Director of Public Art in Manhattan's Cultural District through it's lead organization, Fourth Arts Block. He's also an originating member of No Longer Empty and Co-Founder of The M.a.N.Y. Project.

Fourth Arts Block

///

AUGUST 2, Class #2 - Matej Vakula

Tompkins Square Park
Manuals for Public Space

/// Together and through the night we sat down and brainstormed and created a manual for public spaces, asking what about public space is lacking? Who uses these spaces? and Why don't others? ///

     

Matej is a Slovak artist and teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia, focusing on artistic research and embedded art practices in new media art, technology, activism and education. Matej studied as a Fulbright scholar at Massachusetts College of Art and at MIT, and is also contributing to several Slovak and Czech art magazines such as: "Flash Art" or "Profil" Magazine for Contemporary Art. vakula.eu

///

July 26: Fort Greene Park, Fort Greene, Brooklyn

Class #1 - Dede Young

Cultivating Collectors

/// Right before the big storm, Dede taught us how and when to confidently talk to collectors and curators, as well as the basics of how to make your art practice a career and not a hobby ///

     

Dede Young is an Art Consultant who works with artists on career development and with private clients on all aspects of building and maintaining art collections.

As a former museum curator of modern and contemporary art (Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida; Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY Purchase) and Director of a regional arts center (DCCA, Wilmington, DE) and gallery Director (Marlborough Chelsea) Dede has overseen more than 100 museum exhibitions, developed collections, presented public lectures, and published dozens of essays and interviews on a wide range of topics. She has managed artist's residencies, community projects, and led tours to local and international art venues.

Class #2 - Lee Tusman

DIY Travel Round-The-World For Creative Artists: From Art Squats to Pirate Radio Stations

/// Crowded under the only covered space in Fort Greene Park, Lee gave everyone gave everyone priceless tips to travel around the world, however you want to go ///

     

Lee Tusman creates urban, socially-based art projects as a curator, installation artist and photographer. He is Creative Director of Hidden City Philadelphia and a curatorial member of Little Berlin art space. Tusman's projects straddle the intersection of ideas that are socially-based, urban in nature and that combine unconventional practices with traditional visual art media. Tusman spent 2011 traveling around the world and visited artists, squats, pirate radio stations, street kitchens, communes, collectives and more in 25 countries.

Class #3 - Anna Harsanyi

Glitter Gradient Nail Art

/// Despite the rainstorm, Anna taught us how paint glitter waterfalls on our nails ///

     

Anna Harsanyi has been loving nail art ever since she was a confused teenager, messily splotching her nails with different color polishes in an attempt to look "weird." As an adult, Anna co-founded nail art pop-up shop Violette, and she dedicates her free time to learning new techniques in order to make her and her friends' nails look absolutely fabulous.

///

July 12: Howard Steinberg

Obamacare Explained

Maria Hernandez Park, Bushwick

/// Howard gave a practical introduction to the inner workings of the health care system with a breif overview of what is in store for its future ///

     

     

Howard Steinberg was a public health officer for small city and a county in NJ for 34 years, has served on the board of directors of Morristown Memorial Hospital, was on the NJ State Health Planning Board. From that he went on to become the chair of Region one - a four-county health planning board. In 1998 Howard founded the Bio-terrorism Response Preparedness Task Force for Morris County, he served on the State Health Emergency Planning Committee, as well as being in charge of environmental protection in Morris County, NJ. For 15 years, he was also the president of the Holistic Alliance in NJ.

///

July 5: Marie Lorenz

The Archimedes Principle (a short lesson on the principles of floating)

McKibbin Park, 333 McKibbon Street, Brooklyn

/// The perfect class to start the season! Marie explained the mathematics that govern the buoyancy of objects, via a simple equation. With the houseplants that we brought, we calculated their combined weight, built a small raft and set it afloat in the Newtown Creek!///

     

     

Marie Lorenz is and artist living in Brooklyn. She operates a rowboat water taxi in the New York Harbor called the Tide and Current Taxi. She has received grants from Artists Space, Socrates, the Harpo Foundation, and the American Academy in Rome. Ms. Lorenz was appointed assistant professor of printmaking at the Yale School of Art in 2009.