Ad Hoc Art

This is perhaps one of the more challenging evaluations I've posted, the reason being that Ad Hoc Art is something more ethereal than what we usually address on these pages. Ad Hoc Art is the organization we originally contacted to assist us in making the Welling Court Mural Project happen. When Georgina and I were originally introduced to the gallery owners, Garrison and Alison, also known as the art entity Buxtonia,  there was a physical location for their highly creative endeavors, but now that earth bound caterpillar (though quite beautiful and compelling all on it's own), has become more than the sum of  its parts. It has gone thorough a synchronistic metamorphosis.
Alison and Garrison continue to do exactly as they have always done, in that they are a focal point and a guiding force for the creation of public art by both up-and-coming and internationally recognized artists. They have an uncanny ability to bring disparate people and thoughts together into works far beyond what might occur without their subtle intervention. They are organizers and soothers in a highly chaotic and tumultuous world through which artists pass, create within, and are free to explore their newest visions. Ad Hoc assists in making it safe to be an artist in a consumerist environment that has identified this particular art style as having no value: works on the bricks of the local bodega cannot be monetized (OMG!) and are possibly even a bit dangerous. This sort of art often pushes people's buttons, though to my mind that's what art should be doing.

So it is that with the help of Ad Hoc Art, the world is slowly coming around to the understanding that there is a significant difference between the thoughtless and angry expression of gang-taggers, and graffiti artists. This art form originated here in NYC, and has since expanded onto the international stage with massive gatherings in Paris, Rome, and Amsterdam. Ad Hoc has very quietly allowed and encouraged many of those same artists, who now display their works on walls as well as in major galleries around the world, to return to where it all started, to pay homage to their beginnings, and it has done so with utter and complete sincerity.

Evaluation: Extraordinarily sincere!

 

http://adhocart.org

Welling Court - neighborhood

So you might well be asking yourself, "what the hell? Isn't that the street you live on?" The answer is, yes it is. Yes! We're giving ourselves a well deserved pat on the back.

This is indeed the street we live on, and I can say without reservation that it is quite possibly the most sincere neighborhood in NYC if not the entire USA. How do I arrive as such a bold statement? How about this: a few weeks ago we held a block party in celebration of the 40+ internationally recognized artists who came to paint the walls of the neighborhood. The artists came because they were invited by our wonderful  corroborators in this effort Ad Hoc Art Gallery, and permission had been obtained from all the owners of all the wall spaces. The community came because this is were we live together, people of all ethnicity and all backgrounds celebrating our neighborhood. But it was more than that: when the artists began to arrive, individual neighbors from all up and down this small street began to bring them juice and food and ice. They offered paint and donated whatever they could to support the transformation. They stood and watched the progress of individual works. they were inspired. This was a community of people with a uniting common interest: a better more beautiful place to live, and that interest was coming alive right before their eyes.

The artists were moved. The people were moved. The residents of this formerly somewhat forgotten and obscure little neighborhood helped each other to grow that day. The artists came together in that growth as well. Ask any of them.

Everyone here stands just a little taller now, and when we speak of home - that home is not located on a grungy little street tagged with gang-graffiti anymore. It is located on the best street in Astoria, New York. Welling Court.

Evaluation: Extraordinarily sincere! (What else?)
 


Check it out - search the net, "Welling Court Mural Project."