A campy shuffleboard club inspired by Florida’s senior scene is making its hipster debut in Gowanus. Golden Girls unite!

Owners of The Royal Palms, a grocery-store sized club featuring regulation-size shuffleboard courts and a full bar, is set to open their new venue in a 17,000 square foot repurposed Gowanus building—location not yet disclosed—featuring a nostalgic bent with lounge music, bingo, Yahtzee, key lime-flavored cocktails and episodes of “The Love Boat” on TV.

The Brooklyn Paper reports that the coming shuffleboard club will offer a dozen regulation-sized courts and a potential roof deck. A final leasing agreement is in the works, thus co-owner Ashley Albert declined to give away the exact location, but she says it will “likely be a super-affordable spot to channel your inner snowbird. We want it to feel like a Florida hotel from the ’70s. It’s a fun vintage thing for 20-and-30-somethings to try. There’s just something kind of cool about old time-y activities.”

(Photo: TV My Wife Watches blog)

Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7205

And we thought the bedbug epidemic had bitten the dust. But according to a notice sent to parents of The Carroll School Tuesday, the pesky little critters are still gnawing in Carroll Gardens… or at least one is. The Patch reports that a notice was sent home with kids alerting them that a single bedbug—yes, as in one—was found on the premises of P.S. 58 at 330 Smith Street. A flyer from Principal Giselle McGee dated May 14 stated that “there are bed bugs in the school,” according to a parent that contacted the Carroll Gardens blog.

“We recently found a confirmed bed bug in your child’s school,” the letter reads. “Finding a bed bug does not mean that our school is infested. Bed bugs are often unknowingly brought into schools by building occupants and as a result we may have future sightings.” The notice also includes a description of the symptoms of a bed bug bite.

Patch contacted the school, where a source acknowledged that “a single bug” had been identified on a child and that a technician will be coming in for a second time later this week to check for a potential… second bed bug.

Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7200

Nearly 200 students who took the SAT collegiate entrance exam at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights on May 5 had their scores invalidated by the administrator of the test, according to an article in The New York Times. The reason: Some students were seated too closely together.

The decision outraged school administrators, students and parents, who say they are being “punished” for a technicality. Students that need results from the four-hour test for college applications will have to take it again (at no cost). Bruce Dennis, the head of Packer, told the Times, “To do this to 200 kids is unconscionable.”

Educational Testing Service, which administers the SAT on behalf of the College Board, confirmed that 199 scores from the exam were canceled after a “surprise” audit of the testing site. Dennis said the school’s ETS liaison was told by the company that some students were not seated the mandated 4 feet apart, although the Wall Street Journal says ETS’ “surprise audit revealed numerous infractions.”

Of the 199 students that took the SATs at Packer May 5, 63 who are enrolled at the school were impacted by the score cancellation. School officials learned of the issue when emails from parents started pouring in Tuesday, according to the WSJ story. Packer has retained a lawyer “to see that our students’ rights are protected.”

NYT notes that testing services have been on increased alert since a large cheating ring was uncovered on Long Island last year, involving test-takers impersonating other students.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40649

Nearly 200 students who took the SAT collegiate entrance exam at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights on May 5 had their scores invalidated by the administrator of the test, according to an article in The New York Times. The reason: Some students were seated too closely together.

The decision outraged school administrators, students and parents, who say they are being “punished” for a technicality. Students that need results from the four-hour test for college applications will have to take it again (at no cost). Bruce Dennis, the head of Packer, told the Times, “To do this to 200 kids is unconscionable.”

Educational Testing Service, which administers the SAT on behalf of the College Board, confirmed that 199 scores from the exam were canceled after a “surprise” audit of the testing site. Dennis said the school’s ETS liaison was told by the company that some students were not seated the mandated 4 feet apart, although the Wall Street Journal says ETS’ “surprise audit revealed numerous infractions.”

Of the 199 students that took the SATs at Packer May 5, 63 who are enrolled at the school were impacted by the score cancellation. School officials learned of the issue when emails from parents started pouring in Tuesday, according to the WSJ story. Packer has retained a lawyer “to see that our students’ rights are protected.”

NYT notes that testing services have been on increased alert since a large cheating ring was uncovered on Long Island last year, involving test-takers impersonating other students.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40649

Thursday, May 17 starting at 7;00 p.m. there will be a Brazilian dance party at Pier 1 (enter at foot of Old Fulton Street), Brooklyn Bridge Park, featuring Nation Beat (see video after the jump), Maracatu New York, and DJ Greg Caz. Admission to the party is free; food and drinks will be available from vendors. More details are here.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40631

Deputy Inspector Mark DiPaolo, Commanding Officer of the 84th Precinct, has notified BHB that the Precinct’s Community Council will meet next Tuesday, May 22, at 7 p.m. at St. James’ Cathedral Pavilion, 240 Jay Street (between Cathedral Place and Chapel Street). On the agenda are (1) a presentation on crime prevention on NYC transit (2) the Cop of the Month award (3) a transit police report (4) a community crime report and (5) a Q&A period. All are invited, and refreshments will be served.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40589

Commenter “She’s Crafty” suggested in a comment on BHB that Squibb Park be renamed Adam Yauch Park to honor the Brooklyn Heights native and Beastie Boy MC who died earlier this month at the age of 47.

We couldn’t agree more. We hope you do too. A Facebook page has been set up to garner support and we encourage you to “like” it as well as voice and share your thoughts here in the comments.

Here’s our brief mission statement from FB:

Squibb Park in Brooklyn Heights, NY is currently undergoing a transformation into a skateboarding facility and gateway to Brooklyn Bridge Park. The Brooklyn Heights Blog community believes that it would be a fitting tribute to name it after Brooklyn Heights native, musician, humanitarian Adam Yauch (MCA) of the Beastie Boys. Adam Yauch Park sits directly across the street from the Harry Chapin Playground which is also named after a great Brooklyn Heights resident, musician and humanitarian. To show your support please like this page and share with your friends.

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Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40620

Our man in the NYS Senate, Daniel Squadron honored fallen Beastie Boy/Brooklyn Heights native Adam Yauch today with a resolution on the Senate floor. Yauch, who died of throat cancer May 4, was recognized by Squadron for his contribution to music as well as his humanitarian work.

Details and video from a presser after the jump:

State Senator Daniel Squadron honored Beastie Boys founder Adam “MCA” Yauch with a resolution on the Senate floor. The resolution, which recognizes Yauch’s and the Beastie Boys’ major contributions to music, as well as Yauch’s political activism, passed the Senate yesterday afternoon.

Yauch grew up in Brooklyn Heights and the Beastie Boys grew to prominence via the East Village and Lower East Side music scene.

The Squadron resolution reads in part: “Whereas, The music and message of the Beastie Boys evolved over the years, but they can’t, won’t, don’t stop changing the face of hip-hop, of music, and of our culture. Whereas, The Beastie Boys exemplified New York through a period in which grassroots creativity and a community of iconoclastic artists helped redefine and rejuvenate a city on the ropes, with iconic imagery from Brooklyn to Ludlow Street.”

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40608

Brooklyn-based art cooperative United Photo Industries is creating a temporary “photographic village” out of 30 shipping containers in Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 3 Uplands for nine days this summer, with the promise that “central to the Village will be a communal beer & food garden serving chilled brews and artisanal snacks.”

Gothamist reports that “Photoville” will exhibit its “celebration of photography” from June 22 to July 1 (hours are here). It comprises a mix of exhibitions, lectures, hands-on workshops, nighttime projections, a mini dog run with the “Paws Wall of Fame” and beer garden provided by Brooklyn Brewery “that will create a photographic destination like no other.” Four to five food truck vendors will also be on-hand, via the New York Food Truck Association.

The Photoville website describes its mission as “a Brooklyn-born, art-presenting cooperative dedicated to identifying, harnessing and occasionally conjuring unexpected exhibition opportunities. All in the name of fostering conversation, championing new directions in photography and cultivating ties within an ever-expanding, globe-trotting community of photographers.”

Sounds positively hipster.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40594

This Brooklyn Daily Eagle story has the headline, “Brooklyn Bridge Park at odds with Heights over bike stations.” It implies some sort of Park-Heights conflict that doesn’t exist. Update: If you follow the link above, you’ll now find that the Eagle headline and story have been re-worded, evidently in response to this post.

The story quotes Nancy Webster of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy as welcoming a bike station near Atlantic Avenue and Furman Street, which is not on a residential street in Brooklyn Heights. It then notes that the Brooklyn Heights Association has expressed some concern over bike stations on residential streets in the Heights. This in no way conflicts with the BBPC’s desire for a station near the Park’s entrance, so the BBPC and the BHA are not “at odds.”

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40584

Open Thread Wednesday has arrived again! What’s on your mind, BHB compatriots? Comment away.

(Photo: Chuck Taylor)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40552

EMS has transported a 52-year-old man to Bellevue Hospital after an apparent stabbing that occurred at the Brooklyn Heights branch of the Brooklyn Public Library on Cadman Plaza West Tuesday evening. The victim was reportedly stabbed in the neck and abdomen, but the injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. A suspect was taken into custody at the scene. The Daily News reports that the incident occurred during an argument in which a man confronted another over his choice of online viewing material.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40576

DUMBO-based developer Fortis Manor, which purchased the homely one-story Brooklyn Eagle Building at 30 Henry Street & Middagh in November 2011, paid $3.5 million for the property, according to a post today on Brownstoner. Broker Massey Knakal confirmed the figure, which is $500K over its asking price of $3 million.

That comes out to a cost of $209 per buildable square foot. Brownstoner notes that the site allows for a total of 16,740SF on the site. As previously reported, a six-story red brick building is slated to take its place.

The Brooklyn Eagle building was constructed in 1963 and was thus landmarked, but it has already been approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission for its new incarnation. A rendering for the future building is below.

(30 Henry Street photo: Brownstoner)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40559

The 15th-annual meeting of the Montague Street District Management Assn., part of the Montague Street Business Improvement District, will convene Thursday June 14, 4-6 p.m., on the second floor of Eamonn Doran’s at 174 Montague Street.

Addressing the group will be keynoter Seth Pinsky, President of the NYC Economic Development Corp., and guest speaker Tucker Reed, President of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.

To vote and actively participate in BID-related matters, members must register here. The Montague Street District Management Assn. comprises commercial property owners, commercial tenants, residential renters and/or owners and all interested non-voting interested Board members and attendees.

At the meeting, members will vote to elect Directors and on revised by-laws and policies. Members may request electronic copies of information at info@MontagueBID.com or by calling 718-522-3649. For more information on the organization, contact Executive Director Brigit Pinnell at bpinnell@MontagueBID.com.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40502

Writer and theologian William R. Wineke, a columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal and an ordained clergyman of the United Church of Christ, expresses his views on same-sex marriage in an opinion piece for WISC-TV Madison, Wisconsin’s news website Channel3000.com.

We’re neither supporting or dissuading the author’s perspective here, but highlighting his reflections on Brooklyn Heights some 45 years ago. Wineke describes living here in 1966 as “a beautiful community of brownstones that had been brought back from slum death by an influx of gay and lesbian citizens.”

That’s long before I (your BHB scribe, not Wineke) moved to the nabe, although I’ve heard fascinating anecdotes about gay haunts and a robust shadow populace in decades past. Anybody care to add perspective about Wineke’s conjecture that the Heights was gentrified and/or aggregated by the gay community?

There’s more in the Channel3000 piece, relative to Winike’s time in Brooklyn Heights. He adds: “At that time, the question wasn’t whether gays should be allowed to marry—but whether they should be allowed to join our churches. Most of my neighbors were gay, I guess. The only difference between them and me is that they liked to watch football on television and I liked to read on Sunday afternoons. One thing was clear even then: My neighbors were no threat to western civilization or to Christian values. To the contrary, they upheld the civilization and values of our neighborhood.”

See the full opinion piece, “Give Up the Bigotry” hereand

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40526

Elizabeth Stribling, founder of Stribling & Associates real-estate brokerage, made headlines in 2008 when she relocated from the Upper East Side’s East 84th Street to Brooklyn Heights, in a record-setting $6.6 million 12th-floor 3,442SF pad at One Brooklyn Bridge Park. This month, she is profiled in The Real Deal in a story titled “Stribling: The Next Generation,” which focuses on her company’s “branding overhaul aimed at modernizing the 32-year-old firm’s somewhat stuffy” persona.

In the piece, Stribling reflects, “No one could believe I was moving to Brooklyn,” although she has certainly developed an affinity for the borough. In addition to selling out the residences at the storied Plaza Hotel and peddling Brooke Astor’s Park Avenue apartment for $21 million, the brokerage’s Stribling Marketing & Associates arm is also repping the 24-unit condo at 20 Henry Street in the Heights—which is 50% sold.

Steven Rutter, who heads Stribling’s Marketing division, tells the Real Deal that while Manhattan projects still make up 85% of the firm’s new development listings, it is “gaining a foothold in Brooklyn, with more of a downtown feel.”

Likewise, top-producing Stribling broker Alexa Lambert, notes, “Now, someone who lives on Park Avenue could much more easily want to [move to] Tribeca. Brooklyn has also become much more attached to Manhattan. People think of it the way they would have thought about moving to the Village or the West Side a few years ago.”

Elizabeth Stribling founded her firm on the Upper East Side in 1980, with eight brokers. Today, she has more than 250 agents and offices in Chelsea and Tribeca, in addition to a Madison Avenue flagship. See the full Real Deal profile here.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40514

This year’s Willowtown Fair, part of a growing tradition, will celebrate the lives of two women who made great contributions to the life of that community, and will feature a wine tasting, foood from Iris Cafe, bluegrass music, and fun for kids. Ben Bankson, President of the Willowtown Association, gives us the following:

The dedication of trees in memory of two longtime neighborhood residents and a wine tasting are among the features of the Willowtown Association’s annual Spring Fair to take place this Saturday, May 19, from noon to 5 p.m. the full length of Willow Place.

The trees memorialize Caroline Palestino, who died last June at age 92, and Mary Merz, who died last September at age 85. The dedication is set for 3 o’clock. Caroline lived her entire life in Willowtown. Her tree is in front of 10 Columbia Place, part of the Riverside apartment complex, where she was born. A native of Ohio, Mary was an architect who with her surviving husband Joe designed three of the contemporary houses on Willow Place. She was active in the Willowtown Association and largely responsible for its work in the greening of Columbia Place. Her tree is on State Street by the Palmetto Playground developed largely to her and Joe’s design.

The wine tasting is by Waterfront Wines & Spirits, a new shop at Joralemon and Furman streets. It will take place throughout the afternoon in the Alfred T. White Community Center at 26 Willow Place.

Other features of the fair include live blue-grass music by a group called the Five Deadly Venons, who also played at last year’s fair; food by Willowtown’s own Iris Café; races for both kids and adults; a Jumpy Castle; and a visit by a fire truck from Engine Co. 224.

Photo: Planners of the 2012 Willowtown Spring Fair are, from left, front row, Elise Pettus, Bill Newbury, Clare Brew, Linda De Rosa and Libby Cooper; and back row, Jeffery Streem and Ben Bankson.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40505

The Montague Street Business Improvement District is calling on all Brooklyn Heights Blog readers and area residents to participate in a survey to collect info on what folks think about programs & services in the nabe’s primary retail destination, as it strategizes future goals.

Four survey respondents will be randomly selected by BID to receive a $50 gift certificate at the Montague Street business of their choice. Housing Works, here I come! What are you waiting for? Access the questionnaire here.

Among the 18 questions:
What business, or types of businesses, would you like to see on Montague Street?
What do you like most about Montague Street?
What is the single most important issue facing Montague Street?

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40494

Mr. J and his cam go with Tony of Noodle Pudding to the Hunt’s Point market in the Bronx, where Tony shows what’s available and how he curates selects the ingredients for the dishes on his menu. Then it’s back to the restaurant to taste the day’s gleanings. Having sampled ramps for the first time yesterday, your correspondent is glad someone likes them. Videos and more text after the jump.

We then get into the secrets of Tony’s “trust me” menu which, trust me, I’m eager to try based on Karl’s video. I’ll just say I’m allergic to ramps. Also, it’s good to know that there’s a happy ending to the story of Jack and Diane.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40473

After revealing last week that Brooklyn Heights’ historic Bossert Hotel was returning to its roots as a hotel, Brownstoner reports today that city filings offer a confirmed buyer for the Jehovah’s Witnesses property.

David Bistricer has plans to turn the structure into a 302-unit “Hotels, Dormitories,” in DOB-speak. Meanwhile, according to the filings, the architect of record on the job is Gene Kaufman, who has been in the news lately for his plans to renovate the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan, a landmark in its own right.

Bistricer had this to say to us about the plans for the Bossert: “The facade is not going to be touched because it’s in impeccable condition. The present owners kept it in very good shape. The plans have not been finalized for the interior of the building but we are going to upgrade the plumbing and electrical.”

Well, now we know who some of the players are for a building that qualifies as a national treasure, since it is public record. What is not yet public record is how much the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ are in contract to sell the structure for, though some real estate insiders we have spoken to opine that it could be close to the $90 million price that the property almost sold for back in 2008.

(Photo: Brownstoner)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/40476

]]> http://brooklynbugle.com/2012/05/14/sold-historic-bossert-plan-in-place-to-convert-back-to-hotel/feed/ 0 http://brooklynbugle.com/2012/05/14/brooklyn-bugle-book-club-memoir-of-a-debulked-woman-enduring-ovarian-cancer-by-susan-gubar/ http://brooklynbugle.com/2012/05/14/brooklyn-bugle-book-club-memoir-of-a-debulked-woman-enduring-ovarian-cancer-by-susan-gubar/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 12:21:32 +0000 Alexandra Bowie http://brooklynbugle.com/?p=56188 FULL STORY]]>

Image via Amazon.com

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

Indiana University English professor Susan Gubar did not quote Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem “Dirge Without Music” in her brave memoir of her first years of living with ovarian cancer. But the tension Millay relates so vividly came into my mind as I read Gubar’s description of her efforts to face cancer and accept reality without resigning herself to fate or any other abstraction.

As Gubar explains it, ovarian cancer is a systemic disease. Originating in an organ deep within the abdominal cavity, it is often hidden, its symptoms taken to be indigestion. As a result, it is often discovered late, when it has developed into Stage III or Stage IV disease, affecting some or all of the rest of the abdomen. The initial treatment, ‘debulking surgery,’ in which the abdominal cavity is opened and all visible signs of a perhaps metastasized cancer are removed, is uncertain but likely to be horrible. Anticipating her debulking surgery, Gubar writes,

Who knows if malignancies have spread from both ovaries over the fallopian tubes, the uterus, the cervix, the appendix, the bladder, the liver, and parts of the intestines or lymph system? . . . efforts to stop the cancer’s growth require surgeons to get up the gumption to gut a seemingly vital woman, removing many of her internal organs.

At the time of her diagnosis, Gubar decides, she will go through the surgery and one round of chemo, and then seek palliative care. About half of US debulking surgeries, Gubar reports, wind up as ‘suboptimal:’ a residual tumor of more than one centimeter remains after surgery. And that’s what happened to her. But Gubar’s point is different:

Physically, immediately after the surgery I will suffer from what the counterattacking doctors do against the cancer, rather than from the disease itself. The hardly noticeable symptoms of cancer pale in comparison to those produced by the surgeons determined to excise it.

After the surgery, Gubar suffered serious side effects, including a perforated colon that developed into an abscess requiring first a drain and then a second abdominal surgery and an ileostomy – and all this during chemo. Gubar writes openly about the physical degradations and humiliations of the ileostomy, not to mention the daily challenges required to bypass the usual route of defecation, calling it ‘unspeakable and unspeakably anxiety-producing.’ She writes movingly about the impact her injured body has on her soul and her efforts to come to terms with death.

Today a number of scientists, looking for the fountain of perpetual youth, seek to make death depart from the human condition; however, it seems to me, as I now confront mortality at closer proximity, that intimacy with the mortal body educates us. Cancer and its treatments teach us, or have taught me after two years of coping with bizarre consequences, that life without the finitude of death–the inconceivable finality of one’s own death–would be intolerable.

Betrayal by her body, betrayal by her spirits, betrayal by her doctors. No wonder the thought of Judas, the subject of Gubar’s most recent book before the diagnosis, is a recurrent motif. Gubar recites poetry and prose she has loved, and thinks about the images Frieda Kahlo produced, the painting “The Dream” most of all, as she copes with all this. And she worries about the effect of her illness on her husband, her daughters and step-daughters, and her students.

Yet Gubar endures everything, and writes her book while she is enjoying – yes, that’s the word I mean – her remission. She explores the implications of her change of heart – she has decided to undergo another course of chemo after her first remission comes to a close. Her final chapter is a meditation on what she calls loconocology, “the double binds into which current protocols put medical practitioners of cancer and their patients.” She includes a plea to medical science to find a way out of these paradoxical choices, for the sake of the many women diagnosed with this disease each year.

This is a generous and full-hearted book, an anguished and powerful description of one woman’s successful effort to come to terms with a horrid reality. Medical ethicists and gynecologists must read this thoughtful book, and so should all the rest of us.

What was your response to this powerful book? Let us know in the comments.

]]> http://brooklynbugle.com/2012/05/14/brooklyn-bugle-book-club-memoir-of-a-debulked-woman-enduring-ovarian-cancer-by-susan-gubar/feed/ 0 http://brooklynbugle.com/2012/05/13/urban-folk-art-gallery-shines-spotlight-on-p-s-8-students/ http://brooklynbugle.com/2012/05/13/urban-folk-art-gallery-shines-spotlight-on-p-s-8-students/#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 21:37:55 +0000 Erin Cassin http://brooklynbugle.com/?p=57578 FULL STORY]]>

Creativity has spilled forth from the classrooms of P.S. 8 and found its way onto the walls of the Urban Folk Art Gallery, thanks to the “How’s the Weather?” exhibition that features dozens of landscape paintings and drawings by first-grade students from the Brooklyn Heights elementary school.

The group show marks the end of a 14-week workshop held at P.S. 8 in conjunction with the Manhattan-based teaching arts organization Studio in a School. Teaching artist Belinda Blum collaborated with P.S. 8 teachers Carolyn Saffady, Sjene Kendrick, Mackenzie Field, Sandy Long and Matthew Levy to provide a comprehensive visual arts program shaped by concepts from the students’ first-grade curriculum.

“We thought about what we were teaching in our curriculum and then what naturally lends itself to artistic expression,” Saffady explained.

Science became a focal point of the workshop, as the students learned how to portray different types of weather conditions with pencils and paint. The program progressed from simple pencil sketches to painted landscapes with horizon lines and varied brushstrokes.

“They were studying weather and cloud formations so the teachers and I decided that we were going to make this really about the process of mark making through drawing and painting,” Blum noted.

Blum, who is a Gowanus-based oil painter, has conducted Studio in a School workshops at P.S. 8 since 2006. However, this year marks the first time that her residency has culminated with a group show in a local gallery. The idea came from Saffady, whose boyfriend is Urban Folk Art Gallery co-owner/curator Adam Suerte.

“She is very art-inclined and was just thinking of a way to end it on a great note,” Suerte said, noting that the gallery setting gives the students a “nice context” in which to see their art.

“I think it is amazing that the kids get to see their work outside of the school,” Saffady added. “It is really special for them.”

The young artists seemed truly thrilled to tour the gallery and view their artwork when they stopped by on a class outing last week.

“I’m excited,” said P.S. 8 student Numa Fiorentino, who was accompanied by his mother, Emy Gargiulo. He described his painting as “very rainy and stormy,” an effect he achieved with a technique taught by Blum during the workshop. “She said we could use the back of our brushes to make the rain,” he explained.

“Belinda (Blum) is particularly good with bringing out the best of their skills,” added Gargiulo. “They are starting to be little artists and are really proud of the work.”

Several students enthusiastically spoke about their paintings during a group discussion led by Blum on the morning of their gallery visit. These moments of reflecting and sharing together have been another integral part of the program, as they have given students the opportunity to practice new vocabulary and observe each others’ work. The children also had occasion to express themselves through writing during the workshop, as each penned a short paragraph that is on display alongside their work. This exercise was formulated to help them strengthen their literacy skills and provide them with a channel to describe their creative process.

“It’s amazing – these kids have so much to say,” Blum noted. “They wrote about the process a lot and the choices that they made.”

The gallery exhibition has added yet another layer of learning to the workshop this year, as it has allowed for the students to experience the community beyond their classroom in an innovative and engaging way.

“At this age they’re really trying to understand their community, so it helps them learn that their community expands for them outside their school,” Blum said.

Gallery visitors can even provide the young artists with feedback via a signing book that will be shared with the students at the conclusion of the show. “How’s the Weather?” will be up through May 19th at the Urban Folk Art Gallery located on 101 Smith Street.

 

Photos by Lori Singlar for the Brooklyn Bugle

 

 

 

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