Boston Flora

Tag: Socrates Sculpture Park

  • Wednesday, July 7, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – The Waterfront Parks of New York City, Online

    While many New Yorkers take their waterfront parks for granted these days, it wasn’t too long ago that all of them were once used for anything but a public green space. So what led New York’s waterfront properties to transform from military fortifications, industrial sites, and harbors to beautiful parks for recreation? And how do these new waterfront parks serve the community, while also paying homage to their historical roots? It’s time to explore some of the most incredibly unique waterfront parks that New York City has to offer.

    Join New York Adventure Club online on July 7 at 1 pm Eastern as we explore some of New York City’s most prominent waterfront parks, which have been repurposed over the decades from sites of industry to beautiful and innovative public green spaces.

    Led by Sylvia Laudien-Meo — art historian, museum educator, and NYC tour guide — this virtual journey surrounding New York’s past, present, and future of waterfront parks will include:

    • The history of New York’s waterfronts, including Governors Island’s military past and Brooklyn’s many industrial sites
    • An overview of some of the most notable waterfront parks around NYC’s five boroughs
    • A discussion of these parks’ cutting edge landscape design that reclaim, restore, and protect the natural waterfronts
    • The push to make waterfront parks functional for the community, including Brooklyn Bridge Park’s state-of-the-art sports facilities
    • A look at parks being used to showcase permanent and temporary art installations, such as Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens (photo below)
    • A sneak peek at new waterfront parks slated to open in the coming years, along with ones that never got off the drawing board

    Afterward, we’ll have a Q&A with Sylvia — any and all questions about New York’s waterfront parks are welcomed and encouraged!

    Can’t make it live? Don’t worry, you’ll have access to the full replay for one week. $10 fee.

  • Through June 1, 2022 – Jeffrey Gibson: Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House

    The Trustees announce a large scale exhibit at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum beginning this June and running through June 1, 2022. A monumental sculpture by renowned artist Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Choctaw-Cherokee), the title, Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House, comes from a song Gibson associates with nightclubs that have provided haven and community especially for LGBTQ+ people and BIPOC.

    The ziggurat form references the earthen architecture of the ancient Mississippian city of Cahokia, which flourished in the seventh through fourteenth centuries, well before European contact. The installation will be adorned with phrases advocating for Indigenous space and culture and wheat-pasted posters co-created by Gibson and artists Eric-Paul Riege (Diné), Luzene Hill (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), and Dana Claxton (Hunkpapa Lakota).

    Gibson has invited Riege and Hill to stage performances on and around the installation. Additionally, he invited Claxton to adapt one of her photographs, titled Lasso, to a monumental scale as a billboard which will be on view in the Sculpture Park by June 1. The installation opens with Riege’s performance on Friday June 4th from 12-4pm. Click here to learn more.

    Learn more about the past programs and performances for Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House while it was on view at Socrates Sculpture Park.

    About the Artist

    Jeffrey Gibson’s vibrantly patterned work addresses his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage as well as his queer identity, and the aesthetics and biases associated with those identity markers. He works across painting, sculpture, video, performance, and installation art. He draws on Indigenous process and materials, and queer histories that use camp aesthetics as a critical strategy to deny any romanticizing of Indigenous cultures. By exaggerating these aesthetics Gibson forges conversations that transcend binary thinking. Merging styles and historical references, Gibson states, “I have continued to think about my practice as encompassing the past and present while considering the future.”

    Gibson (b. 1972) earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA from the Royal College of Art, London. His work has been featured in recent solo exhibitions at the Denver Art Museum and the New Museum, New York, and was included in the 2019 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, as well as more recently at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. A 2019 MacArthur Fellowship recipient, Gibson is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

    This project was originally commissioned by Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City. VIA Art Fund is the commissioning sponsor. For more information and hours, visit www.thetrustees.org