BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
As we near the new year we’ve asked a special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2016 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for him or her. It’s an assortment of treats for you to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for the new year to come. It’s our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ for inspiring us throughout the year.
Stalwart proponents of Street Art and New York’s Little Italy neighborhood, Wayne Rada and Rey Rosa have shepherded many artists onto walls of this historic commercial and residential community over the five years with their L.I.S.A. Project and the LoMan Art Festival. With a comedians’ sense of timing and serious Gotham grit, since 2012 these guys have been responsible for welcoming artists like Crash, Daze, Ron English, Olek, Bishop 203, Invader, … and many more to install their work legally in the heart of Manhattan. Today they tell the story of an experience with a mural by Shepard Fairey this year that reassured them that their hard work is worth it.
Manhattan, NYC
September 2016
Photo by Rey Rosa
For their “Hopes & Wishes” posting the guys share a letter they received this year after working with Shepard Fairey’s crew to put a new mural up. They say that stuff like this makes all their efforts seem worth it.
“I really feel that the teacher at TASS school, sums up about how we feel, and why we spit blood for this mural program,” says Wayne.
“I wanted to write to thank you again for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with my art students. They loved meeting and talking with you, and have been excited watching your progress from classroom window,” begins the letter from Kristen Miller, a teacher at Technology, Arts, and Sciences Studio.
“Our students usually do not have the opportunity to be exposed to formalized art outside of school. Being able to meet and talk with a professional artist not only was an amazing way to help them make connections between the street art they see around them everyday, but also to what they are learning in my art class. It was a great opportunity to show them that street art/graffiti is a form of “real art” that has value, and that it can have real meaning.”
The L.I.S.A Project NYC : lisaprojectnyc.org
Instagram/Twitter: @thelisaprojectnyc
The LoMan Art Fest (Lower Manhattan Arts Festival): lomanartfest.org
Instagram/Twitter: @lomanartfest
