Bushwick the 'Site' for art this weekend

By Aaron Short

Brooklyn’s most intriguing spectacles can be found in Bushwick this weekend.

The neighborhood’s visual artists, dancers, theater geeks, comedians and musicians will all come out for the third annual Site Fest — a two-day, 100-event spectacle on March 5 and 6.

The number of acts is simply overwhelming, so grab a map and make your first stop at the five-year-old Grace Exhibition Space on Broadway, which will host Psychotherapy Live! and the Frankenstein Sweater Party.

Then walk up to Chez Bushwick, where the neighborhood’s best dance performers reside. We recommend Regina Nejiman’s untitled performance at 4 pm before heading over to the Bushwick Starr for experimental theater.

On opening night, Con Lab’s Rafael Gallegos will present “#loveislove,” which employs found footage and text from basketball star Stephon Marbury’s social media accounts (is it too late to add Carmelo Anthony’s Twitter feed to the show?).

On Sunday, head to 3rd Ward for a series of interactive performances and lectures — Arts in Bushwick veteran Laura Braslow is leading a talk at 3:30 pm, and Sarah Conde will speak at 7:30 pm about two mixed-media paintings she made.

But the oddest stuff may be what you encounter in the street or at satellite spaces, art galleries, coffee shops and vacant lots in between theater and dance studios.

The quirky-yet-notorious performance art troupe Baby Skin Glove is offering a “Zen experience” at its Stanhope Street lair, and a Belgian choreographer flew in from Europe to perform an endurance piece on the streets of Bushwick.

“Basically she’s going to dance until she drops,” said festival organizer Chloe Bass.

You know you want to be there when it happens.

SITE Fest (various locations in Bushwick), March 5-6, 1 pm-midnight. Tickets $5 per show ($10 day pass; $15 weekend pass). For info, visit www.artsinbushwick.org/site2011.

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This arts fest is so 'Beta'

By Aaron Short

Ever wonder where all the artists in Brooklyn are moving to these days?

That would be Bushwick — where another arts festival is set to command your attention on Sunday.

Beta Spaces, a free one-day arts festival sponsored by the all-volunteer group Arts in Bushwick, consists of more than 50 group exhibitions from neighborhood artists all encompassed between three subway stops on the Williamsburg-Bushwick border. 

“The festival provides an opportunity for inexperienced curators to try something for the first time, said Arts in Bushwick’s Ali Aschman, who curated her own show, “The Box Which Contains the World” at Brooklyn Fire Proof. “We’ll accept anybody as long as they are within the parameters we set. We don’t turn anyone away.”

That freewheeling spirit has generated a lively mix of shows each with its own theme that include a pile of metal, rubber and plastic scraps that experimental musicians use to make music, a mystical alleyway on Forrest Street filled with performance artists and trees, and a female arts collective called the Push Pops leading an “aerobic utopia,” 

“For ‘Push Pops Gone Wild,’ we’re talking about a woman’s right to be fierce and nasty, her right to embrace wild free love,” said Push Pops founding member Katie Cercone. 

Beta Spaces events will be throughout Williamsburg and Bushwick mostly around the Morgan Street L train, Nov. 14 noon–7 pm. For info, www.artsinbushwick.org.

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Studio city! Bushwick artists throw open their aeries this weekend

Brooklyn’s premier artists’ studio tour returns this summer — and it is entirely free.

Bushwick Open Studios, the two-day arts festival in June, is larger than ever with 275 individual shows in studios, galleries, and streets, featuring some of the most exciting artists in Bushwick and Williamsburg.

Seeing so many people on the street in her neighborhood is what Chloe Bass, of the group Arts in Bushwick, looks forward to the most.

“It’s really fun when someone says my house is open to you and anyone else, see how I make work here, how I love and what I do here,” said Bass.

It’s a sprawling festival, so it is impossible to see everything, but there are some highlights.

Several new galleries, including Storefront and Famous Accountants, will feature new shows. The elder statesman of the Bushwick art scene, Factory Fresh, is throwing a solo show for Skewville, while English Kills will celebrate its three-year anniversary, featuring its favorite Bushwick artists.

The future of Bushwick may be at stake at a Saturday afternoon panel, moderated by our own Aaron Short, where community leaders will hash out challenges the neighborhood faces regarding housing, industry, and immigration.

For those interested in rocking out and reading up, a music festival returns to Goodbye Blue Monday and the 2010 Cabaret is back on Scholes Street, while a new literary fair will be held at 3rd Ward Brooklyn.

Perhaps the weirdest show will be hosted by BabySkinGlove, which will give guests a performance art makeover at the Morgan Avenue studio. Suggested donation is $1.69.

Of course, the most exciting aspect of the festival will be the artwork in open studios itself. That is why artists and art patrons keep coming back to Bushwick Open Studios year after year, says festival organizer Laura Braslow.

“Every year we see some of the same faces. Seeing a lot of artists we had in 2007, who are still in the festival, give it feeling of continuity,” said Braslow.

So take it all in and bring your BlackBerry to monitor where you’re going by logging onto the festival’s live-updated Web site. Otherwise, and old-fashioned printed program with a map of every studio in the neighborhood will do just fine.

Bushwick Open Studios, June 4-6, noon to 10 pm. For info, visit www.bos2010.artsinbushwick.org.

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Bushwick SITE Fest returns

Arts in Bushwick's SITE Fest is coming.

The two-day festival has over 100 acts spreading out over 35 spaces in Williamsburg and Bushwick.

How do you possibly navigate that, you ask? The complete listing of events for this year's festival is available for perusal HERE, with that handy map pointing out the venues here.

Study up, and good luck!

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