Bringing Back Bowery: Public Art as Protest
Bringing Back Bowery: Public Art as Protest
Open Wednesday–Sunday | 11 AM–6 PMÂ
Curated by Sono Kuwayama, Bob Holman, and Howl! Happening
Presented by Howl! Happening: An Arturo Vega Project
With the recent landscape of plywood, the vibrancy of our history and our neighborhood has also been shuttered. I envision the Bowery and Second Avenue, and all the streets in our neighborhood that have been boarded over, becoming a beautiful museum or gallery of art—free for the public, which has not had any opportunity to look at art firsthand in over 100 days. —Sono Kuwayama
After the tragic death of George Floyd, impassioned citizens in cities around the world rose up together in a call for justice. The streets became the backdrop for our collective mourning, our outrage, and our plea for change. Opportunistic agitators took advantage of peaceful demonstrations and forced many businesses to board up storefronts all over New York. On the Bowery, a neighborhood with the reputation of creating beauty out of strife, the plywood barriers became windows into the hearts of the neighborhood’s artists.Â
Bringing Back Bowery: Public Art as Protest is a re-presentation of public artworks made in solidarity with the protest movement fighting for racial equality and police reform. This exhibition includes artworks by Izhar Patkin, Robert Blodgett, and Sono Kuwayama, as well as collaborations by James Rubio and Hitomi Nakamura; Pamela Sneed and Gail Thacker; and Maya Edelman, Scooter LaForge, and Sono Kuwayama.Â
The exhibition will be on view at Howl! Happening: An Arturo Vega Project beginning Thursday, August 13 through Sunday, August 30, from 11 AM–6 PM. To ensure the safety of our visitors, we will be limiting entry to 10 people at any one time.Â
VISITORS MUST WEAR MASKS, MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCING, AND REGISTER UPON ENTRY (providing their name and email address or phone number). TEMPERATURES WILL BE TAKEN AT THE FRONT DOOR. PEOPLE WITH A FEVER WILL BE NOT BE ADMITTED.