URBAN ARTWALKING TOUR

OFMANHATTAN &

BKLYN

By: Angie, Charisma, Lucia, Monique, & Stefan

MAP

A. KidrobotB. My Plastic HeartC. Williamsburg BridgeD. Cotton Candy MachineE. Buff Monster mural

SOHO & LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC

ABOUT:SoHo Famous for being the first neighborhood in

NYC that was given an acronym for it’s name. SoHo is short for South of Houston Street.

It’s hard to imagine SoHo being nothing more than forests and meadows, but that was the reality in the 1600’s. Six different Native American tribes were settled here and were connected by paths. The Nahtouk, Ispetenga, Sappokanican, Warpoes, Sherakopak, and Muscoota tribes were all neighbors of one another.

Modern day Broadway was once known as the Weckquaesgeck trail.

In the 1660’s after the Dutch had to began to settle into the lower tip of Manhattan, Augustus Herman bought a lot of land in the current SoHo area. Upon his dead his property that he owned went to his brother-in-law, Nicholas Bayard. Bayard in turn became the largest property-owner in all of NYC.

Modern SoHo and art have gone hand and hand for decades. In the 1960’s SoHo was known for it’s all the rage avant garde scene. Today, art galleries can be found up and down the cobblestone streets. The diverse community in SoHo makes it one of the most art driven areas in all of Manhattan which make it a very popular destination for tourists and locals alike.

Lower East Side Before the American Revolution most of

the Lower East Side was farmland owned by James Delancey. To honor this, a famous street was named after him, now known as Delancey Street. Also, another was named to remember the orchards that once stood ground in that area hundreds of years prior called Orchard Street.

German, Irish, Italian, Polish, and Ukrainian immigrants were led into this area to settle after arriving in the US. These immigrants opened street carts and businesses here, which led to a thriving community.

After World War II, Jewish immigrants from Germany and Poland settled into the Lower East Side. Creating businesses, homes, and families their cultural influences can still be found there today.

Artists flocked to the Lower East Side during the 1960’s, because of the cheap living spaces and more quiet vibe of the neighborhood. It’s quiet escape from the hustle and bustle of midtown gave it’s artistic citizens the environment they needed to create their masterpieces.

LOCATION 1: KIDROBOT Founded in 2002 by artist Paul

Budnitz, Kidrobot is a powerhouse design company that collaborates with the cream of the crop of today’s biggest illustrators, fashion designers, street and Pop artists. These collaborations produce designer toys, art prints, sculptures, and clothing, which sell for anywhere from $5 to $25,000.

Most of the designer toys produced by Kidrobot are known for their aesthetic beauty of their shape and design.

In 2011, the MoMa had on display examples of Kidrobot’s most popular “designer platform toy”, the dunny. This toy acts as a canvas for artists to create designs that are unique to them, but require restraint by staying true to the boundaries of the shape.

LOCATION 1: ACTIVITY LESSON

Students will be asked to create a sketch of a designer toy and then write up a persuasive essay explaining why their creation would work as a canvas for artists to display a design on.

Does the shape of your design provide viable canvas space?

Why is it aesthetically pleasing?

Do the contours of the lines add depth through light and shadow in the space you provide?

LOCATION 2: MY PLASTIC HEART GALLERY

Established in 2004 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan across the street from the Sara D. Roosevelt park.

Don’t let size fool you when stepping into My Plastic Heart. This small lower east side gallery might be short on space, but not on the talent it has on display. Almost on a monthly basis superstars of the urban art scene; such as, Andrew Bell, Chris Ryniak, Aya Kakeda, Julie West, and many more grace the walls of this gallery with their art pieces.

LOCATION 2: ACTIVITY LESSON

Sara D. Roosevelt park was created in 1934 from money donated by philanthropist Sara Delano Roosevelt (mother of FDR). It originally had a skating rink, two wading pools, divided play areas for boys and girls, and trees and benches surrounding the border of the park.

Today it has a soccer field, several playgrounds for children, garden space, a senior citizen’s center, basketball courts, and a skating rink.

Students will be asked to answer questions based on critical thinking then compare and contrast.

Is it important for large cities to incorporate parks into them? Why?

What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages to having parks in a city?

What kind of rules should a public park have?

LOCATION 3:WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE

• Opened in 1903• It is a suspension bridge

located across the East River, from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

• It is 7,308 feet long which is about 1.4 miles long.

• The style is Structural Expressionism. This mean that the bridge structural elements are visible inside and out.

• The Williamsburg Bridge has appeared in many movies.

LOCATION 3: ACTIVITY LESSON

Conversions: The length of the Williamsburg Bridge is 1.4

miles. How many feet long is it? How about inches? Yards? Show your work for each and label.

Based on the length of the Williamsburg Bridge in miles, approximately how many kilometers would that be? Draw a diagram to show how you estimated.

  Geometry: Geometry is crucial in the building of bridges.

Without it, they would collapse. The strength of the bridge depends on its shape. List all geometric terms and/or shapes you see within the Williamsburg Bridge. You may use your math notebooks or a smart phone to help you recall the terminology associated with geometry. When you are done with your list, draw a sketch of the bridge showing the geometric terms/shapes.

  Statistics: According to the 2009 Bridges and Tunnels

Annual Report from the New York City Department of Transportation, approximately 206,783 people travel the Williamsburg Bridge everyday. If 106,783 are daily commuters what percentage of travelers are non-commuters?

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN

ABOUT: The name Williamsburg was founded in 1800 by Richard M. Woodhull after

he purchased a large area of land by North 2nd street in Brooklyn. Aspirations of attracting New Yorkers to a more suburban lifestyle, he opened up a tavern and began laying a foundation in the area that would go through many changes over the next century.

Williamsburg became home to many different immigrants from Europe in the 1830’s. German, Austrian, and Irish settlers planted roots here opening up businesses and building homes.

The Industrial revolution was running full steam in Williamsburg in the mid 1800’s. Many large corporations were established in this booming Brooklyn neighborhood at the time. Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Brooklyn Flint Glass (Corning Ware), the Domino sugar refinery, and the Rheingold brewery were just some of the large companies that developed here.

Thanks to the building of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903, it led to thousands of Jewish immigrants from the Lower East Side to migrate over to Williamsburg, almost doubling the population of the neighborhood.

A downward spiral of factory jobs from the 1960’s – 1990’s left many unemployed and it started to show in Williamsburg with the boarded up buildings and vacant lots that were on almost every block.

Over the last 20 years new tenants in the form of artists began moving into Williamsburg for their cheap rents and large spaces that were available. This was the beginning of an upswing that brought back operating factories, film studios, and luxury high-rises to the area.

LOCATION 4:COTTON CANDY MACHINE

Cotton Candy Machine is a gallery and shop located in the heart of the urban art scene in Williamsburg Brooklyn. In 2011, surrealist artist Tara McPherson opened the doors of this popular gallery that showcase her works, as well as other urban artists. Lines of adoring fans form days before an event to catch a glimpse at what next collaboration she has worked on for monthly art shows, signings, and events.

Art prints, apparel, books, and posters are just a few of the mediums she works on.

LOCATION 4: ACTIVITY LESSON

Students will conduct a Group research assignment about a famous surrealist artist.

What were some of their most famous pieces?

What kind of medium did they work with?

Did inspiration from the time period and culture that they lived in show through in their art pieces?

LOCATION 5: BUFF MONSTER OUTSIDE MURAL

Created in the summer of 2013 in collaboration with Juxtapoz magazine and the Converse sneaker company, LA based urban artist Buff Monster painted this gigantic mural on the side of the building which resides on the corner of North 12th and Berry streets in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Buff Monster’s love of surrealism shows that he grabs inspiration from Salvador Dali.

He’s famous for his work with cartoon based anthropomorphic ice cream creatures and never falls short on his use of color and expression. He often collaborates on projects with fellow artist Tara McPherson, as well as worked on many pieces for Kidrobot over the years.

LOCATION 5: ACTIVITY LESSON

Students will be asked to focus on the large scale of the piece and notice the size difference between each item depicted.

Later that week students will work independently creating a picture in their sketchbooks using pencils, pens, and markers. The focus will be on showing scale between multiple things without losing detail in them, as seen in the mural.

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NYC 1Brice MardenThe Propitious Garden

of Plane Image, Third version 2000-2006

Oil on linen, six panels Does the placement of this

piece (near entry and exit to museum) have any significance to the museum’s bias views (if any) on society? What do you think those views may be?

Does scale play a factor in how the message is seen by the public?

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NYC 2Andy WarholGold Marilyn Monroe 1962Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas

Andy Warhol was an inspiration for alot of urban artists today because of his use of pop culture in his pieces. He created this piece the year Marilyn Monroe died.

How did pop culture influence art in the 1960s?

How can a painting of a real person influence the person’s legacy?

What can we conclude about the past by looking at works of art?

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NYC 3 Bauhaus Stairway (1988) Painted by Roy Lichtenstein.

Made of oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas.

Roy Lichtenstein was an American pop artist.

Him, along with others have become a leading figure in the new art movement.

His work, for example, this painting defined the basic premise of pop art through parody.

His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style.

“He described pop art a “not American” painting but actually industrial painting”

BAUHAUS STAIRWAY ACTIVITY Teacher will give students background info on the

artist and on his style of painting. Teacher will emphasize that Lichtenstein didn’t

want to reproduce originals, he wanted to recreate them in the way in which the mass media portrays them.

Teacher will then show class the original Bauhaus Stairway. Students will compare and contrast the two. They will then write what their interpretations about both paintings.

Teacher will then explain that Lichtenstein was often accused of plagiarism since he never mentioned or cited the original works. Students will then write a paragraph reflection in which they agree or disagree with this and have them explain why.

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NYC 4The Persistence of Memory Salvador Dali 1932Dali rendered his fantastic visions with meticulous verisimilitude, giving the representations of dreams a tangible and credible appearance. In what he called “hand painted dream photograph,” hard objects become inexplicably limp, time bends, and metal attracts ants like rotting flesh. The monstrous creature draped across the painting’s center resembles the artist’s own face in profile; its long eye lashes seem insectlike or even sexual, as does what may or may not be a tongue oozing from its nose like a fat snail.

THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY ACTIVITY

Title: As Our Dreams Unfold Following the students viewing The Persistence of Memory and reading

the description they will create their own “hand painted dream photographs”.

Tying the activity in with the topic of urban art, the students will be directed to a website:

(http://www.urbanartcore.eu/top-urban-art-photographers/) which displays urban art photography. The students will choose one photograph from the website. These

photographs will represent the realities and the students must convert the realities into dreams.

As Dali displays a dream world in a sense with his piece; the students will observe the urban art photograph and imagine it in a dream world.

The students will use painting materials to recreate the photographs; with the one requirement being that they include themselves in the art piece.

*Students should be reminded that they may represent themselves in any form.

The students will finally write up a short explanation of the piece they have created as if it were in an art gallery.

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NYC 5 MAPPA, 1971-72Embroidery on linen Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994)

was an Italian artist who mastered an art movement known as arte povera- a movement of young italian artists trying to create a new sculptural language through the use of everyday materials.

From the 1970’s through the �1990’s, Boetti traveled back and forth to Afghanistan where he became inspired to have his sketches of the world embroidered onto canvas by Afghani women.

BOETTI’S MAPPA: ACTIVITY Students will be required to

research Boetti’s biography. Based on what they learned, I would ask students to mark all the locations Boetti has traveled to in the world using the map to the right.

There are over 150 renditions of the mappa from the 1970’s all the way to the mid 1990’s. I would choose three maps- one from each decade and ask the students to compare/contrast the countries in each (changes occurred in the Middle East).

During the biography research on Boetti, students will write a one page paper on what inspired Boetti to create his collection of embroidered maps. They will also write a one page paper critiquing his Mappe collection.

RESOURCES

Arcnet.com (2013) Roy Lichtenstein [website]. Retrieved from http://www.artnet.com/artists/roy-lichtenstein/

Brooklyn Public Library. (2005). Williamsburg [website]. Retrieved from http://www.bklynpubliclibrary.org/ourbrooklyn/williamsburg/

City of New York. (2014). Sara D. Roosevelt Park [website]. Retrieved from http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/saradroosevelt/

Cotton Candy Machine Inc. (2014). Cotton Candy Machine [website]. Retrieved from http://www.thecottoncandymachine.com/about/

Ferri, Jessica. (2014). A History of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg Bridge-Fun Facts [website]. Retrieved from http://brooklyn.about.com/od/Brooklyns-Bridges/a/History-of-Brooklyns-Williamsburg-Bridge.htm

Kidrobot, Inc. (2014). About kidrobot [website]. Retrieved from http://www.kidrobot.com/AboutUs.html

Lasane, Andrew. (2013). Buff Monster Coats Williamsburg in Sticky Goodness with this New Mural [website]. Retrieved from http://www.complex.com/art-design/2013/10/buff-monster-coats-williamsburg-in-sticky-goodness-with-new-mural

Lower East Side Business Improvement District. (2010). History of the LES [website]. Retrieved from http://www.lowereastsideny.com/about/history-of-the-les/

Myplasticheart.com. (2003-2013). About Us [website]. Retrived from http://www.myplasticheart.com/about/

The Museum of Modern Art. (2014). The Collection [website]. Retrieved from http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=79737

The Museum of Modern Art. (2013). Aglighieri Boetti: Game Plan [website]. Retrieved from http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/boetti/about.html

RESOURCES CONT’D. Nyc-architecture.com. (2014). Williamsburg Bridge [website]. Retrieved

from http://www.nyc-architecture.com/BRI/BRI003-WilliamsburgBridge.htm Nyc-architecture. (2014). Structural Expansion [website]. Retrieved from

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/STYLES/STY-struc.htm Seema, Helene Z. and Siegfried, Alanna. (1978). History of SoHo [website].

Retrieved from http://www.artnyc.com/SoHoHistory.html SoHoNYC. (n.d.). SoHo History [website]. Retrieved from http://

www.sohonyc.com/history.html Urban, Brenna. (n.d.) Top Urban Art Photographers [website]. Retrieved

from http://www.urbanartcore.eu/top-urban-art-photographers/ Wikipedia. (2014). Roy Lichtenstein [website]. Retrieved from http://

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Lichtenstein