project overview
For fifteen years, the artist collective known as Skewville, comprised of twin brothers Ad Deville and Droo, has been making neighborhood-inspired street art throughout New York City. Now with the Bushwick Art Park project, Skewville dreams of transforming the neighborhood they call home into an artist-run green space for the community.
With a mixture of industrial warehouses, hispanic immigrants, and a fast-growing community of artists, the neighborhood of Bushwick has become the new frontier for gentrification in New York City. As a result, little dialogue exists among Bushwick's diverse residents regarding the state of the neighborhood's littered streets, abandoned lots, and derelict houses. This not only fails to address the physical state of the neighborhood, but it also stymies potential community interaction and formation.
Thus the cornerstone of the Bushwick Art Park is two-fold. First, Skewville aims to establish a community park on an underused and garbage-strewn street in Bushwick. The park itself will be simple, created by blocking off Vandervoort Place, using the existing walls for murals, and installing sculptures on the open street. The artwork placed in the Bushwick Art Park will rotate on a seasonal basis. At the ends of Vandervoort Place permanent storage units will be built and the structures can double as information booths during events.
The second aspect of the project includes inviting other street artists and local businesses to participate in the park transformation. By cultivating a spirit of community, collabortion, and cooperation between the long-time residents and new creative class, the Bushwick Art Park has the potential to become a hub for renewal across the entire neighborhood.
Chapter 1 of the Bushwick Art Park includes throwing an Art Park Block Party on Vandervoort Place as a way to introduce the project to the community.
In Chapter 2 Skewville will arrange for a large-scale mural to be painted by both Skewville and other street artists on the walls flanking the proposed street to mark the beginning of the community partnership with local artists and neighborhood-wide renewal.
For Chapter 3 Skewville will deliver a formal proposal to the city of New York as a way to encourage the city to assess the effects of 'de-mapping' the proposed street.
For more information on the artist collective visit: http://skewville.org
