Brave Brooklyn is an art exhibit and auction to benefit the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn (OSA) and Trust Art projects supported by OSA. Brave Brooklyn will be open to the public December 4-11.

Along with various other works, including that of pre-eminent sculptor Richard Serra and mixed-media artist Fred Tomaselli, this exhibition features the artwork of Trust Art artists proposing new public art projects in collaboration with OSA.

To help fundraise for Justin's public artwork, Portraits of Dreamers, Trust Art and OSA are auctioning this piece by Justin:

Brooklyn Dreamers, 2008, photography print, 16 x 16".
The artist shot the first DREAM group portrait in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in June 2008. His vision for this and all subsequent shoots for The Dreamers is a mixture of celebration and mise en scene that has continued in his shoots throughout the world.

Go to eBay to bid on this piece.  The starting bid is $800 and the auction closes on December 11 at 9pm (EST).

The work is on view until December 11 at 30 Dobbins Street in Williamsburg.  There is a closing reception open to the public on December 11, 6-9pm.  Join us if you are in Brooklyn!

Other artists in this exhibit include: Bradley Brown, James Case, Ryan Goolsby, Weston Woolly, Emily Goode, Suzanne Zwicky, Gidalya Tashman, Karl Metz, Adam Taye, Chris Burnside, James Woodward, Robbert Jan de Oude, Sam Martineau, Lizzy Wezler, Matt Jones, Kristin Deirup, Jesse Witkin, Kris Graves, Nathan Koch, and Molly Surno.

More info at bravebrooklyn.com


The final Berlin picture will be revealed when all other cities have been visited.  Until then, keep dreaming.

Justin preparing the flag.

The big day is here. The long, dreamy journey from Brooklyn and Mexico City to Berlin is culminating tomorrow saturday at the East Side Gallery. Come join us at 13:00!

We are looking forward to meeting you all.  Please feel free to share with the event with friends. The event is free and open to the public, the only thing you need to do is wear white clothes and bring your dreams.

Here is a good link about the event to share with friends: unlike.berlin.net

This video was created by AnimatedZeugto share the Berlin Dreamers project with people in Berlin; to invite them to the East Side Gallery on November 14, 2009. This section of the Berlin wall will act as the backdrop for a group portrait of people who consider themselves 'dreamers'. Everyone is invited to join: artists, poets, musicians, schoolchildren, lovers, and creators of all kinds. Please share this with anyone you know in Berlin.

The Dreamers project is uniting dreamers in five cities around the world. The project started in Brooklyn, just went to Mexico City, and will travel to Tokyo and Johannesburg 2010.

Berlin Details

Saturday November 14, 13:00h

At the "East Side Gallery", a section of the Berlin Wall on Mühlenstraße near these stations: U-Bahn Warschauer Straße and S-Bahn Ostbahnhof.

PLEASE WEAR WHITE CLOTHES, BE CREATIVE!

more info: trustart.org/justin-tellian; write to jose@trustart.org to get involved (we need DJs :).

We're getting closer to our fundraising goal.  8 prints have been sold, and 2 more are still available. A $100 donation will get you a beautiful print, hand-delivered by the artist if you are in New York.   Most importantly, we want to get as many dreamers as possible to come out for the Berlin shoot, so help us spread the word if you can.

Also, the negatives from the Mexico City Dreamers shoot have been developed and everything is in its perfectly exposed glory.  Now on to the re-touching phase.   However, the final image willl not be revealed until all the cities have been visited, so that we can unveil all five as a unified portrait of the worldwide movement of dreamers.

Our goal is to raise $3000 towards the production budget of the Berlin Dreamers portrait by November 14.  Here is the breakdown of what we need:

2 airfare tickets (photog, producer)......1200
Insurance...........................................500
Lodging..............................................700
Transportation.................................... 200
Film.................................................. 200

As every bit helps, we are asking for contributions of $10 (which make you a 'shareholder' of the project), as well as selling a beautiful print edition of the original Brooklyn Dreamers portrait.

Original Dreamers Print (picutred above)

A $100 contribution towards our fundraising goal of $3000 includes a 16" x 16" print of the image that inspired it all.  Thousands of artists, all over the world, have seen the Brooklyn Dreamers portrait.  The image has rallied people in New York, Mexico, Berlin and soon in Johanessburg and Tokyo.  There are only 10 prints available for this drive. If you like your art to be artifacts of real-word social victories, then this art is for you!

The East Side Gallery (photo by marc hoffman)

Every time we've heard someone talking about Berlin in the last few years, it has been energizing. It seems like every young artist in Europe has Berlin on their radar, if they haven't already visited or moved there.  The city is young (it has been only 20 years old since the fall of the Wall) and maybe because ot the complexity of its past life, the love of Freedom is fundamental in Berlin.  An on-going city-wide affirmation. For us here in New York, Berlin seems like the bright-burning torch of Europe.

Researching places in Berlin to stage the portrait, we naturally came across images of the Berlin Wall. And to our great amazement, we realized that Berlin is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall this November, the same time we will be there to stage the portrait.  The universe is smiling at us!  So we kept digging around this idea of shooting at the Wall. 

Then we came across the photograph above.  The photo is by marc hoffman from at so-called 'East Side Gallery', one of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall, re-born when artists from all over the wolrd came to celebrate freedom in Berlin days after the Wall fell in 1989.  We realized we had found our sacred space.  An icon of the most serious proportions and tone, transformed by artists into a place of art, joy, and possibility.

The East Side Gallery will be the site for the next portrait of Dreamers on Saturday November 14, days after the Freedom Festival in Berlin. The meeting time is 13:00.    

Our task now:  to meditate on this space from afar; to get all of our friends involved, to connect with as many dreamers in Berlin as we can, and to raise the funds to "make the work" as Walt Whitman reminded himself.!  Our goal is to raise $3000 for the project by October 14 (primarily for airfare, lodging, and insurance; Europe is a little more expensive than Latin America!). 

We have some ideas in the works for a fundraising party in Brooklyn. If you wish to help in anyway, you can find more details about how to get involved and share this with friends with this gallery of images: The Next Chapter: Berlin.  You can also email : jose@trustart.org. 

The first bar chart, 1786

We have been raising funds for the DREAMERS project in an innovative way,  inviting people to 'become shareholders' and giving participants a stake in the success of the resulting prints sold at the first annual Trust Art auction next summer.  For this reason, we are making every effort to understand the art project from a financial/commercial perspective as well as its artistic merits.  

In this post, we are offering a transparent look at the expenses of the Mexico City portrait, as well as making our best estimate of the value of the services donated to the DREAMERS project for its first big milestone.   What we have realized is to what extent we are the beneficiaries of a wave of energy and resources from a wonderful group of people in both New York and Mexico City. 

                                  
Airfare                                                    $300
Printing                                                    $35
Production vehicle                                     $65
Equipment rental                                      $50
White fabric                                              $30
Hardware (pole, wire, paint)                      $30
Telecom (phone/text charges)                    $25

Total Expenses                                       $535

The rough tally of the services and in-kind contributions donated to the project:

1st Photo Assistant (Harry Fellows)            $450
2nd Photo Assistant (Seth Aylmer)             $450
Producer (Jose Serrano-Reyes)                 $1200
PR (Jose Rivera, Patricia Cordero)               $600
PAs (Alejandro de Gyves, Oscar Rivero)      $400

Videography/editing (Axel Guerrero)          $400

Event Photos (Jose Rivera, Maggie Turner, Anne McClain)      $300                            

Tripod (Harry Fellows):                              $100
Film (Patrick Randak):                               $300
Chassis (Patrick Randak):                          $100

Location  (Hilda Trujillo, Anahuacalli)         $1500
Accommodations (Oscar Rivero)                 $300
Refreshments (Semilla Mezcal)                   $400

Donations                                             $6700

The Mexico portrait came together for about 7% of its true financial cost ($7235). That should create confidence in the project's shareholders, for both its lean spending, and its ability to raise 'social capital'.

Being minddful of the economic prospects of the projects is only meaningful insofar as it complements our understanding of the most important ROI we seek for each of the projects: the authentic human connections that emerge from people participating in creative experiences togehter and the resulting uptick of inspiration in our society.

Dreamers Mexico from Axel Guerrero on Vimeo.