99% Gallery and Art Center Presents:
Born Under A Bad Sign
99% Gallery and Art Center Presents:
The Willoughby Windows Project, curated by Ad Hoc Gallery last summer was a big hit that helped revitalize a downtown block.
These four talented and insightful Brooklyn students in 4th,5th, and 6th grades made an excellent documentary about the project and it’s impact on the people they met who passed the windows. It is very funny and entertaining. Oh yeah, it’s educational too.
Brooklyn Friends Student Documentary Fall 2009 from Samuel Bathrick
The team really studied the topic and explained why they did the project. Here are some quotes from the documentary, to give you a flavor:
“We decided to make a documentary film about the different stores and that had art in them.”
“We had some questions and we wanted to find out what the general public thought about the art.”
“Personally I think the stores closed because of the economy.”
The documentary includes discussion about the project, how it came about, and interviews with people on the street. Garrison Buxton of Ad Hoc, and one of the featured artists in the project Dennis McNett, are also interviewed. The whole documentary was edited by the class instructor, Sam Bathrick.
Three cheers for after school programs! Three cheers for teachers! Three cheers for these amazing students!!
See a previous post on the Willoughby Windows Project
Since 70% of the American economy is fueled by shopping instead of manufacturing, we’re all supposed to be doing our patriotic duty accordingly. But sometimes the wallet is bare, bro. And sometimes the local dollar doesn’t stay local.
In yet another case of Street Art improving a community, the Willoughby Windows project in downtown Brooklyn officially opened this weekend with 17 artists, babies, scooters, costumed dancers, a sidewalk DJ, and inquisitive mildly bewildered citizenry slowing down to peek through the glass into artists’ clever minds.
In a joint effort with Ad Hoc Gallery and the local BID (Business Improvement District), Garrison Buxton and Allison Buxton and all the Ad Hoc interns have worked tirelessly for a few weeks with artists to install this show behind glass and to revive a moribund block in this sector of retail Brooklyn.
Ironically a neighbor to bailout-happy JPMorgan Chase, whose skyscraper casts a shadow over this district of mom and pop businesses displaced by developers, the Willoughby Windows Project gives creative stimulus to the community with a fresh way to think of the shop window.