Crest Fest—Crest Hardware Arts Show 2013.
Crest Fest is an annual summer festival produced by Joe Franquinha, Liza Shields and Jeremiah Davidson, in celebration of the opening of the Crest Hardware Art Show (CHAS). As a means to give back to the community, Crest Fest is structured as a civic-minded, volunteer based event involving community organizations.
The program includes a long list of DJs, a live music stage, local creative art and food vendors as well as involvement from surrounding businesses. Estimated attendance throughout the day is 5000+.
Bushwick Open Studios 3 Day Arts + Culture Festival, May 31 – June 2, 2013
Arts in Bushwick has put together a super map/directory, which is really fun to look at. There are 612 615 studios represented! Keep ’em coming, AIB! This looks to be shaping up to be one kick-ass studio art and music event, with food! Yay! Map your plan now, because it’s 3 days long. Get busy.
The official programming of BOS ’13 events, hosted by AiB and ordered by date:
Everything’s Coming Up Roses at GG Gallery
Dawn Arrowsmith
What’s the takeaway? Media can get mixed. Themes can be loose. The curators wanted to create a dialogue across coasts, and they did it. And, well, it is Spring.
Luisa Caldwell is a longtime Williamsburg artist; Mery Lynn McCorckle lived here from 1989 to 2001, when a certain real-estate nightmare (no heat, no electricity) gave her the final heave-ho (she currently lives in Georgia). Together, they united to curate the sort of weird-yet-it-totally-works exhibit we’ve come to crave in this great neighborhood. The theme, (wait for it!): flowers; the location – our own WG headquarters on Dobbin Street Mews.
“Everything’s Coming Up Roses”, Opening Reception at GG Gallery
Curated by Luisa Caldwell and Mery Lynn McCorkle
Flowers have a mixed heritage in the arts. On the one hand, they have represented lofty emotions (Shakespeare’s “rosemary is for remembrance”) and sexuality (O’Keefe). On the other, they are pretty, a suitable subject for Sunday watercolorists. They are a perfect metaphor for the half empty/half full debate: it all depends upon one’s viewpoint.
For contemporary artists, both viewpoints tend to be highlighted simultaneously. Flowers in the 21st century have come to represent consumerism, modernism, environmentalism, to reflect our architecture, our psyche, our utopias, allowing the artists to pry a more positive outlook out of misfortune.