This spring, celebrate your city at the American Folk Art Museum. Join us for a five-part series celebrating the contributions, communities, histories, cultures, music, and food of each of New York City’s five boroughs. This multi-day festival is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Made in New York City: The Business of Folk Art (March 15–July 28, 2019).
This series is free and open to all.
Bronx Day Activities:
All day Stoneware display and sale
William Reardon will be displaying and selling his stoneware. Reardon, a born and raised New Yorker, currently works from his studio in the South Bronx. He studied ceramics and architecture at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Returning to New York City, Reardon started New York Stoneware, a beautifully crafted line of functional stoneware inspired by classical forms.
1 pm Closer-Look Tour
3 pm Artist Talk with Chris “Daze” Ellis + Sticker Tagging Workshop
Daze will discuss his art and career as a pioneering Bronx-based graffiti artist, using the streets of New York City as both his canvas and inspiration. Following the gallery talk, we invite you to rep your borough in a sticker art drop-in workshop, where we’ll use the street art practice of sticker tagging to create our own NYC-centric designs.
3–5 pm Sailor’s Knot-Making Activity
Join event partner Rocking the Boat for a drop-in sailor’s knot-making activity for all ages, and receive information on its upcoming series of free community rowing, sailing, and birding classes.
5:30 pm Free Music Friday
WombMann (pop/rock/alt/soul)
Keren Abreu (pop/R&B/soul)
Yurby (alternative folk rock/R&B)
A special family scavenger hunt will be available all day long.
Chris Daze Ellis (b. 1962) lives and works in New York City. He began his prolific career painting New York City subway cars in 1976 while attending The High School of Art and Design. He remains one of the few artists of his generation to make the successful transition from the subways to the studio, located in The Bronx. In addition to the many public projects completed, Daze has successfully worked in collaboration with students since 1994. He is represented in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Brooklyn Museum; The Museum of the City of New York; The Groninger Museum, Netherlands; and The Ludwig Museum in Aachen, Germany. In 2015, he was the subject of the solo exhibition The City Is My Muse at the Museum of the City of New York. He has been included in solo exhibitions around the world, including in France, Italy, Korea, China, Argentina, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Japan, and throughout the United States. His work has been exhibited in commercial and alternative galleries around the world since 1981, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Grand Palais, Paris; Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; The Edgewood Gallery at Yale University, New Haven, CT; the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT; the Addison Gallery of American Art at the Phillips Academy, Andover, MA; The Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam; and the Foundation Cartier, Paris, among many others.
Future Best of the Boroughs Event Dates:
Celebrate Brooklyn, June 21
Celebrate Manhattan with our annual Summer Saturday event, July 20
Images: Christopher “Daze” Ellis, The Four Seasons, 2009, spray paint and oil on canvas, 78 x 102 in., courtesy of the artist; New York Stoneware photo courtesy of the artist; WombMann photo by Hassan Malik; Keren Abreu photo by Deb Carlin Photo; Yurby photo by Christian Reyes.