Community: bloggers@brooklynmuseum

West Indian American Day Parade, 2006. Photo courtesy Sam Liu. All rights reserved.

I always know that Labor Day weekend is coming when the the stage for the events and concerts for the West Indian American Day Carnival Festival is assembled in the Museum’s back parking lot. These events add excitement to the still late summer air and culminate in the renowned on Monday with the Labor Day Carnival Parade on Eastern Parkway. For more information about all of the event’s you can visit WIADCA’s website and we hope to see you there!

There is no Target First Saturday in September because of all the festivities. However, my colleagues in the Education Division and I have been very busy getting ready to kick off our 10th anniversary season of Target First Saturdays on October 4th with “Brooklyn’s Biggest Birthday Bash.” I’m excited about all that will take place that evening to celebrate our 10 years and thank our visitors for all of their support, including: a showcase of emerging Brooklyn musicians Mark Yodice, Opsvik and Jennings, Christy and Emily, and Brazz Tree; ten curator talks in the Museum’s permanent collection; a performance by trailblazing artist Kate Bornstein; dance performances by Brian Brooks and Creative Outlet; a dance party hosted by creative-duo Andrew Andrew; and a special salsa dance party with Willie Alvarez and Trombori. There will also be cake. What birthday party is complete without cake? I hope you can join us in October with your party hat on!

Photos by Leah Golubchick

I am excited to announce Dawn Mostow as the winner of our Cosplay Costume Contest that was held at Target First Saturday on April 5^th. The theme of the evening was “Japanimated! The Arts and Culture of Japan,” which related to our two exhibitions of Japanese art, © MURAKMI and Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770–1900. Cosplay (which comes from the words “costume” and “play”) is very popular among anime and manga fans in both Japan and the United States. We chose to have a Cosplay Contest because in planning the program we were looking for an activity that would engage visitors and encourage them to participate celebrating the unique, creative cultures coming out of Japan. For this contest we invited visitors to come dressed up as their favorite anime or manga character and have their picture taken by our volunteer photographers Priscilla Vazquez and Leah Golubchick. Many people dressed up and you can see their fabulous costumes on our flickr stream. It was hard for our panel of judges to pick a winner from the many wonderful costumes, but all chose Dawn’s as one of their favorites.

Rei Ayanami from Evangelion, left, with Dawn at Target First Saturday, right. Photo by Leigh Paris.

Dawn is dressed up as Rei Ayanami, a character from the anime series Evangelion. Dawn chose Rei Ayanami because, “I wanted a popular character that is easily recognizable to anime fans, but also holds a visual interest to people not familiar with Japanese animation, thereby creating an interest in the genre.” Dawn has been involved in Cosplay for ten years and made her costume herself. She has a background in costume design, and is currently studying for an MFA at Pratt Institute. She remarked that making the costume was challenging because she had to work on bringing a two-dimensional character to life. Thanks to Dawn and everyone else who participated in the contest and made April’s Target First Saturday memorable! I hope you can all join us again in May.

This Saturday, April 12, to celebrate our two exhibits of Japanese art we will host an academic symposium entitled “Love and Pop: Contemporary Visual Cultures in Japan and Beyond.” This is the first symposium held in a many years at the Brooklyn Museum that specifically highlights the work of graduate students. It is the first of what I hope will be an annual event. I think it is a unique event because the material that will be presented is both academically rigorous and accessible to all. The day will start off with a keynote address by Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the US. It will continue with a panel entitled “Consuming Desire: Superflat, Otaku, Kawaii and the Grotesque,” moderated by Eugenie Tsai, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The second panel, “Visual Release: Gender, Art, Representation and Exchange,” will be moderated by Aiko Nakagawa. Aiko is a street artist and founding member of the artist collective Faile. Incidentally, the work of Aiko and Faile was very popular on our Flickr page during the Graffiti show during summer of 2006. I chose these moderators for their particular takes as a scholar, curator and artist (respectively) on Japanese and American culture and contemporary art.

A collage of works of art by Aiko Nakagawa

In organizing this symposium I hoped to create a platform for students producing scholarship related to visual culture to share their work with a wider audience. I initially imagined the symposium would attract local students. To my surprise and delight panelists are flying in from as far away as London and California. The panelists are: Kaori Hoshino, Brooklyn College; Meghen Jones, Boston University; Maya Kimura, California College of the Arts, San Francisco; Marci Kwon, New York University; Cindy Lisica, University of the Arts, London; Dawn Mostow, Pratt Institute; Pennylane Shen, New York University. If you join us on Saturday I would love to know what you think!

One of my favorite parts of my job as a museum educator and public programmer is witnessing the conversations that visitors have in the galleries and or during public programs, such as performances and panel discussions. The works of art in Infinite Island have stimulated a lot of discussion, especially around questions of identity, culture, nationality, history and community. We are continuing to highlight these themes with two upcoming public programs that will give Infinite Island a proper send off.

Roger Bonair-Agard in Masquerade. Photo by Peter Dressel

The first is a performance this Saturday, January 19, at 2 p.m. by Brooklyn-based Caribbean members of spoken-word collective louderARTS Project. It is hosted by Def Poetry Jam’s Roger Bonair-Agard, and features poets Hallie Hobson, Rich Villar, and Cheryl Boyce Taylor.

Next weekend, on January 26, we will be collaborating with the organization Domestic Workers United to present their short film “Work and Respect” in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Members of Domestic Workers United, many of whom are from the Caribbean, will talk about the film making process and their experience organizing for their rights as domestic workers in New York City.

I am really looking forward to both these programs which highlight many important voices from our community and, if you join us, we would love to know what you think.

I am very excited that Patrick Amsellem, curator of photography, is working with us on a web project in conjunction with the Goodbye Coney Island? exhibition he curated in the Luce Visible Storage-Study Center. We have created a Goodbye Coney Island? Flickr group which photographers can join and submit their best photo of Coney Island. From this pool Patrick will select four photos to feature in his posts on our blog throughout the run of the show.

This idea came about because the other day I joined Patrick for a discussion of Goodbye Coney Island? and he spoke about the popularity of Coney Island throughout the years as a subject for both American and International photographers. I am a casual photographer, and his comment reminded me how much I enjoy going to Coney Island to take pictures with my Polaroid, Holga and digital cameras. Every time I am there I see countless other photographers strolling the boardwalk in search of the perfect shot to capture the Coney Island’s essence. What a better way to pay homage to this fabled part of New York, I thought, than to engage some of the photographers in our community in conjunction with this exhibition of more than fifty photographs from the Brooklyn Museum’s holdings that traces its evolution over the past 125 years. We look forward to seeing the photographs everyone will choose to post!

To participate please join the Goodbye Coney Island? group on Flickr: (more…)