WEST HARLEM ART FUND & THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK WILL SPONSOR A PANEL DISCUSSION ON PUBLIC ART & ITS IMPACT

The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc.
www.myharlem.org/ 212-690-0867

Myrah Brown Green, Ph.D./The City College of New York
212-650-8836

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

West Harlem, NY….On Tuesday, December 1st 2009 a prestigious panel of artists and art historian will dialogue together about the future of public art in New York City. Beginning with a reception at 4 p.m. at the Library Gallery of the North Academic Center Building at City College, visitors will also be able to review student proposals from the MFA Program in Studio Art for sculpture installations in historic St. Nicholas Park scheduled for next spring.

Featured panelists include: Chakaia Booker, Colin Chase, Harriet Senie and Sandy Winters. The panel will be moderated by Executive Director, Savona Bailey-McClain of the West Harlem Art Fund, Inc.

As the City of New York explores ways to broaden economic opportunities on multiple fronts, the “fine arts” are finally being recognized as an important industry cluster with quantifiable products and needed services. The benefits of this marketing, production and packaging can best be analyzed from The Gates exhibition in New York City. Artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude made millions for the City of New York. Thousands of visitors swarmed the city, hotels were booked to capacity, souvenirs, tours, publications and renderings were sold by the hundreds. But the artists also pushed New Yorkers to look at open spaces very differently with new purpose and meaning.

Panelists will explore how public art could help expand a necessary dialogue to help our city face new challenges like -- climate change, economic and commercial development, illiteracy and improved quality of life.

In addition to hearing the panelist, a short introduction will be made by Ms. Wendy Feur, Assistant Commissioner for Urban Design & Art for NYC Department of Transportation who will share her agency’s initiative on this front.

For further information contact: Myrah Brown Green, Ph.D., Distinguished Lecturer of Art & Arts Advisor to the Dean, Divisions of Humanities or the West Harlem Art Fund, Inc.
& the Arts
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Tea Lights

I am very impressed with Canadian artist Amanda Arcuri. Her photographs are absolutely wonderful. The way she integrates nature and man element to make us stop and appreciate what we have on this earth is a gift. I love the photos that uses lights. Forest Tea Lights which is apart of the Presence in Absence series. Just stunning work. Her website is simply http://www.amandaarcuri.com/. I highly recommend that folks check her works out. Maybe I am biased because I am a gardener. From a child, I loved putting my hands in dirt. While my sisters screamed, I got excited when I saw a worm. Worms are always a positive sign. Many people are so disconnected to the nurturing side of life. I will devote some time in sharing what I love about nature with others. One voice. one spirit, one dream can make a difference.

WE GOT AN UPGRADE

Our digital projection will be at the Pearl Street Triangle at the intersection of Pearl, Front and Water Streets

BRIDGING STONE FIGURES INSTALLATION WILL FEATURE CABARET MUSIC AT THE MANHATTAN BRIDGE

The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc.
http://www.myharlem.org/ / 212-690-0867

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WEST HARLEM/DUMBO … A collaborative mixed-media installation that will spotlight the art work of French artist Patrick Singh, curator Savona Bailey-McClain, photographer Brenna McLaughlin, ALSO PLUS Technical Services and Queen Esther will take place at intersection of Jay and Sand Street at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge.

Queen Esther & The Hot Five – is a collective of New York City's finest jazz musicians that play intimate reconfigurations of rare all-American standards while creating original modern classics
This group is the brainchild of Queen Esther, a multi-disciplinary artist. Her work as a vocalist, lyricist, songwriter and actor/solo performer and playwright has led to creative collaborations in neo-vaudeville, alternative theater, various alt-rock configurations, (neo) swing bands, trip hop DJs, spoken word performances, jazz combos, jam bands, various blues configurations, original Off Broadway plays and musicals, experimental music/art noise and performance art.
As a featured actor in Bravo TV's documentary series The It Factor, an AUDELCO award-nominated star of George C. Wolfe's Harlem Song, and the Grand Prize winner of the 2008 Jazzmobile Vocal Competition, Queen Esther continues to create solo performance art as well as self-released original music while thriving in ongoing creative partnerships in jazz.
The collective of musicians are under constant rotation and include any five of the following players:

J. Walter Hawkes (ukulele, trombone, vox)
James Zollar (trumpet)
Patience Higgins (saxophone)
Vincent Chancey (french horn)
Matt Ray (piano, vox)
Jeff Lee Johnson (guitar)
Marvin Sewell (guitar)
Andrew Hall (bass)
Doug Largent (bass)
Hilliard Green (bass)
Warren Smith (drums, vibes)

According to Savona Bailey-McClain, Executive Director of the West Harlem Fund, Inc. and curator of the installation, “This is a great opportunity for everyone involved. We are so pleased that we are able to project onto the stone base of the Manhattan Bridge.”
This installation is done in cooperation with the Urban Art Program with the NYC Department of Transportation and the DUMBO Business Improvement District.
For more info on Queen Esther and The Hot Five visit: http://www.queen-esther.com/

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DIGITAL IMAGERY AND MUSIC LIGHTS UP THE MANHATTAN BRIDGE IN DUMBO

The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc.
www.myharlem.org/ 212-690-0867

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

West Harlem/DUMBO/New York City… In celebration of the centennial of the Manhattan Bridge -- On Saturday, October 24, 2009 along Pearl, Water and Front Streets in Brooklyn, provocative images by visual artist Patrick Singh will be projected on the buttress wall of the Manhattan Bridge. Since 1997, Singh’s career has been punctuated by international exhibitions – collective and individual – along with artistic residencies throughout Europe, South America and Asia. Singh’s work is exhibited in multiple collections, including the Anne Cros Gallery in France.

His visions come to life under his brush without using models. Sudden appearances resulting from his intercultural journeys, which have impregnated him with indelible words, mental photographs, feelings of torment ….

The West Harlem Art Fund in partnership with ALSO PLUS (Lighting/Sound/Projection) and guest photographer Brenna McLaughlin are projecting Mr. Singh’s works in an interactive installation onto the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO. There will be almost fifty images shown in this one-night outdoor exhibition. Original music will be provided by Queen Esther & the Hot Five.

The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. (WHAF) has presented six outdoor sculptural works and three digital projections in partnership with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and the New York City Department of Transportation’s Urban Art Program. WHAF has also sponsored over 40 individual artist exhibitions, concerts, theatrical events and historical re-enactments.

ALSO + (Aacappella Light, Sound, Organization Plus Inc.) fills a cultural void in underserved areas of New York City. Our organization provides theater arts programs to diverse populations around the city; engages in all aspects of training in production and stage crafts; sponsors internships to children and young adults and maintains a cultural center that encourages everyone to bring the arts into everyday life.

Photographer Brenna Marie McLaughlin attended art school at the Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. Brenna then went on to the University of Pennsylvania receiving her Master’s degree. She now is advancing her career in arts education and teaches at the Harlem School of the Arts. Originally from New Jersey, Brenna now lives in Brooklyn.

Queen Esther & The Hot Five is a collective of New York City’s finest jazz musicians that play intimate reconfigurations of rare all-American standards while creating original modern classics.

Executive Director Savona Bailey-McClain is pleased to have pulled so many talented artists and creative professionals together for this ensemble installation.

Viewing will begin at 7 p.m.

Manhattan Bridge Fast Facts
Type of bridge: Suspension
Construction started: October 1, 1901
Opened to traffic: December 31, 1909
Length of main span: 1,470 ft.
Total length of bridge including approaches: 6,855 ft.
Location: Connects Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn with Canal Street in Chinatown
Clearance at center above mean high water: 135 ft.
Diameter of each of the four main cables: 21.25 ins.
Length of each of the four main cables: 3,224 ft.
Cost of original structure: $31,000,000

History
The Manhattan Bridge is a two-decked suspension bridge that carries automobile, subway and pedestrian traffic over the East River. It connects Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn with Canal Street in Chinatown, Manhattan. Because it was conceived after the Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges, it was called Bridge No. 3 in its planning phase. The bridge is distinguished by an elaborate stone portal and plaza at its Manhattan end.

The Manhattan Bridge has had a troubled existence from its birth. Hoping to relieve the enormous traffic over the Brooklyn Bridge, Gustov Lindenthal, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Bridges, proposed a steel wire suspension bridge over the East River in 1901. When this design was rejected for aesthetic reasons, Lindenthal came back with much debated plans for another version that featured four main cables made from chains of eye-bars, not steel wire. (Eye bars are flat 10-foot lengths of nickel-steel joined at their ends by steel pins. The arrangement is similar to a bicycle chain.) The cables were to be held aloft by two thin-profile steel towers.

A new mayor who came into office in 1904 appointed a new bridge commissioner, who, in turn, opted for another design, this one by Leon Moiseeiff. The new plan, also a suspension bridge, retained Lindenthal’s thin-profile towers, but rejected the eye-bar chain in favor of steel wire. Most crucial, Moisieff’s overall design relied on an experimental new bridge engineering principle called deflection theory. This theory held that the inherent structure of suspension bridges makes them stronger than was originally supposed; consequently, they did not require massive stiffening trusses like those used, for example, on the Williamsburg Bridge. Deflection theory would not be fully perfected for decades, and as a result, the Manhattan Bridge was, essentially, underbuilt.

Compounding the problem, Moisseiff placed the subway and streetcar lines -- the streetcar tracks were replaced with auto lanes in the 1940s -- on the outer edges of the roadway. The heavy moving loads of the trains put a twisting strain on the lightly reinforced deck, resulting in unending maintenance headaches. To correct the problems for good, a long-term reconstruction of the Manhattan Bridge was begun in the 1980s that has only recently ended, in 2007.
The Manhattan Bridge originally featured two of the most impressive entranceways of any New York City bridge. A stone archway styled after the Porte St. Denis in Paris and designed by of Carrere and Hastings (the architectural firm that designed the New York Public Library building) still serves as the Manhattan-side portal. The somewhat less grand Brooklyn approach, which included two statues by Daniel Chester French – allegorical figures of Brooklyn and Manhattan – was dismantled in the 1960s to facilitate traffic movement. The statues were moved to the Brooklyn Museum.

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Lingerie, Burlesque & Cocktails---N Harlem!!

Folks are still buzzing about the evening of Thursday, February 5 th at
N Boutique. As one guest said "It is happening here in Harlem...right here on W 116th St...some folks don't realize this is what it's about and where it's at."

About 100 guests attended the Launch of Dirty Dolls Lingerie,
a line inspired by the vintage under-things worn by burlesque stars of the 1920s.

Dirty Dolls Lingerie is bringing glamour back into the everyday. The line offers hard-to-find bra sizes that most retailers do not carry. The bra size range starts at 30C and goes up to 44DDD, guaranteeing that voluptuous women from coast to coast will be able to enjoy fantastic, figure-enhancing brassieres.

The event took place at N Boutique—a stylishly designed bi-level 3500 sq ft. specialty mens/womens boutique that opened in 2006. N stands unparalled as the fresh, new face of retail in Harlem that is single-handedly creating a destination for upscale shopping in a community not known for high-end shopping. N carries top-shelf independent and emerging talent alongside established designers that have never had a presence in Harlem. Says co-owner Larry Ortiz, the buyer, “Who doesn’t love intimate apparel that’s pretty, sophisticated, inspired by the needs of real, contemporary women—and just a dash naughty!”

The highlight of the evening was the 20-minute burlesque show (introduced by Project Runway's Season 5 contestant Suede) by downtown performers The Incredible Akynos, Perl Noire-the Black Pearl, and Carmen Barika, who worked the the crowd into a frenzy as they sang, shook it, vamped, and stripped before a delighted guestlist of fashionable Harlemites, downtown hipsters, French tourists, black, white, gay, straight, corporate execs, creative types, and even two members of the clergy (!). Nuvo provided cocktails.

To get on the N Boutique email list and be among the first to know about new product arrivals, sales, and store events, send your email info to http://www.info@nharlemnewyork.com N Boutique: 114 W 116 St (7/Lenox Aves.) 212-961-1036 Mon closed, Tues 4-8, Wed 2-8, Thurs-Sat noon to 8, Sun noon to 8.

Digital Projections do work in Harlem

Last November, WHAF painstakingly produced two projections on 12th Avenue and underneath the Riverside viaduct. Though stressful because film was used versus digital images , the impact was important. The art scene in Harlem has been limited to two dimensional art in a studio/gallery or performance art. We are trying to mix it up a bit and get folks to experience art as a part of everyday life. So, check out the image and tell us what we can do to push things forward even during these hard times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uky9Dcjfp1c