The West Harlem Arts fund, an eleven year old carts and preservation organization, is bringing diverse group of artists and their installations to the street on Park(ing) Day. The installations, featuring Japanese Zori weaving, a recycled sculpture garden, and a new model of urban fruit market, are sure to thought provoking and visually entertaining. Savona Bailey-McClain, Executive Director, views Park(ing) Day as an opportunity to give artists and visitors “room to experiment, analyze social ideas and then bring them to a reality.”
Arts Fund Park(ing) Day artists include:
Sai Morikawa, “Old meets New + East meets West= Welcome to the New Planet!” 204 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Artist Morikawa says, “For me, Park(ing) Day is a very special occasion…we are making a peaceful world right on the street”. This environmental park with allow visitors to experience “Eco-zori”. A mix of traditional Japanese “Origami” or “Zori” with Western influences. It’s a new Eco concept — using old clothes or paper bags and magazines for recycling and then turning them into beautiful works of art.
Dianne Smith,”Remix, Repurpose” 196 Lenox Avenue @ 120th St
The artists concept is to “simply use what we have to produce fun, exciting and creative environments in our lives, families and communities.”
“The park Remix Repurpose will be a sculpture garden. It will consist of artwork made from repurposed items that would otherwise be thrown away. I will use newspapers, magazines, rope, tape, glue, and junk mail; basically I will use whatever I have. I will construct the works of art using conventional supplies: some being used in new and interesting ways. The activities will consist of some of the games and toys I actually played with in my childhood such as monopoly, backgammon, and my viewfinder (hopefully it is still working). Other activities will include coloring books and crayons, as well as a large public art making project on the canvas, which will be laid down instead of grass in the park. I will encourage all visitors to the site to leave their imprint by helping me create this public art piece. I will have on hand pastels, markers, etc. All of the aforementioned will be opened to children and adults alike. The park will be equipped with seating, table and Light refreshments as well as music.”
Richard Gonzalez, Juan Manuel Mansilla/Jimena Leiva Roesch ”Farm(ING) Day.” 3358 Broadway
Gonzelez will construct an experimental “Marketa de Parquimetro” that will give entrepreneurs a new venue to sell fresh fruits and vegetables. By utilizing a parking space, rather than the sidewalk, Gonzalez’s market will be doubly beneficial to the public–improving food access and giving pedestrians more room on narrow sidewalks.
“By expanding the concept of Park(ING) Day to Farm(ING) Day, a metered parking space will transform into an exploration and educational lab promoting urban farming practices. The Pop-Park will showcase basic do it yourself techniques on growing and harvesting fruits and vegetables within one’s own home and neighborhood. Farm(ING) Day will educate and encourage local residents to grow their own food products adding in savings to their household food consumption and can also start to revamp the local economy by selling some of the goods to the local food stores. Regional fresh foods will be available for purchase by a local food vendor on the site.”
Shintaro Tokairin, “Weave the Hearts” 400 W. 14th Street, New York, N.Y.
Artist Tokairin is focused on helping New Yorkers in “sharing the experience and connecting our society.”
“The park space will be built with all scrap cloths knitted together. This is a unique concept which I came up with and its inspired from Zori’s (Japanese flip-flops) knitting pattern.The colors are all carefully chosen to blend; green, beige and other neutral color palette. Fabrics include cotton, polyester, wool, plastic and paper bags, T-shirts and so on.In order to create a three dimensional effect, the bamboo and the traffic cones will be placed on the corners, which will be also covered with the fabrics continuously knitted from the ones on the ground. Some small toys, birds and butterfly will be used to decorate the space. Cardboards will be placed underneath to avoid the cloths getting wet or damaged, and they also pad the ground when sitting to make “Zori”.”
Nora Mae Carmichael, “The Peace Park.” 250 Mott Street
Artist Nora Mae Carmichael wants “visitors to journey back in time…where flowers bloomed and love, peace and harmony abounded for everyone. “Flower Power” was a symbol of passive resistance and non-violence ideology. And so to capture that spirit, the foundation of the park will be a canvas surface representing Mother Earth and it will be painted with flowers and a mixture of phrases that symbolize the 60s.” The artist will also incorporate the police barriers provided for protection, as part of the installation to symbolize the importance of civic engagement and free speech in spite of philosophical differences and/or opposition. Visitors can come to listen to great music from the era, make paper flowers out of recyclable materials, dance, meditate, or pause for conversation.
By Abenson on July 20th, 2010.
Filed under: Announcements, News, Park(ing) Day Updates
Tags: parking day, parking spot, parkingdaynyc, Public Space, reclaim the streets —
By jday on October 1st, 2009.
Filed under: 
By Lindsey Lusher Shute on September 16th, 2009.
Filed under: 
To raise awareness of how public space is allocated in our neighborhood, we will transform an unremarkable parking spot into “Cortelyou Road Park”: an urban oasis with grass, lawn chairs, music, art supplies, games, and good conversation for all to enjoy, at the corner of Cortelyou and Argyle Roads, in front of the Public Library.
