The Curator for the West Harlem Art Fund was just asked about her process behind their new location-based tours in Harlem. Just doing the tours was not enough. Using technology was not enough. There must be another reason. Quite annoyed, the curator slept on it and realized that the tours symbolized the spirit of jazz. […]
FRESH EYES/HARLEM DIGI-TOUR
Still image from Cloud Mapping by Debra Swack Still Image from What We Were, What We Are, What We Will Be by Bryan Christie Public Art Curator Savona Bailey-McClain is presenting FRESH EYES, an exclusive, site-specific Harlem Digi-Tour for FRIEZE WEEK. The tour will spotlight points in the Mt. Morris Historic District where she’s […]
DISRUPT HARLEM with FRESH EYES
Artist: Negin Sharifzaheh Stop Animation Work: Even Gray Feels Blue This spring the West Harlem Art Fund will use technology for a location based walking tour and ask participants to look at Harlem differently. Fresh Eyes is being developed exclusively for FRIEZE WEEK 2015 and the Mt. Morris Historic District will serve as its background. […]
STREETS ARE PUBLIC SPACES
“Urbanization is the defining trend of the 21st century; by 2030, 75 percent of the world’s 9 billion people will be living in cities. And urbanization is occurring most rapidly in places with the greatest lack of planning for urbanization.” — UN-HABITAT Executive Director Joan Clos i Matheu According to Project for Public Spaces, […]

SEEKING UPTOWN ARTISTS
UNDER THE VIADUCT 2015 Informational Meeting for West Harlem & Northern Manhattan Visual Artists Digital Media Opportunity Thursday, April 30, 2015 6- 8:30 p.m. West Harlem Development Corporation 423 W 127th St, New York, NY 10027 Presented by The West Harlem Art Fund in partnership with Pratt Digital Arts.
WHAF will celebrate the UN International Year of Light in 2015
About the Year of Light — On 20 December 2013, The United Nations (UN) General Assembly 68th Session proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL 2015). This International Year has been the initiative of a large consortium of scientific bodies together with UNESCO, and will bring together many different […]
QUESTIONBRIDGE ORGANIZERS SPEAK
In 2012, the West Harlem Art Fund produced an installation with French artist Patrick Singh at the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan. As we prepared this digital installation, the Questionbridge exhibition was being installed at the Brooklyn Museum. Their project deals with Black male identity. I asked several members of the team to review […]
Sound Art Lineup with Columbia University
SOUND ARTS/COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS has been at the helm of sound innovation for over fifty years with faculty specializing in composition, improvisation, music theory, musicology, installation, sculpture, instrument building, acoustics, music cognition, and software development. Faculty from the Computer Music Center, along with colleagues from Composition, Visual Arts, and Engineering, led the […]
“Art in the Open: A community forum on the value of public art”
Work by Dancer/Choreographer Gentry Isaiah George Savona Bailey-McClain, Executive Director & Chief Curator for the West Harlem Art Fund will lead a panel on Sunday, June 29th at 4:30 p.m. on public art at the Harlem Arts Festival. The lineup of the panel includes Painter/Teacher/Street Artist Alice Mizrachi, Dancer/Choreographer Gentry Isaiah George and Actress Celeste […]
Lawn Moaning Digital Still by Swedish Artist Eva Olsson
Lawn moaning 1:48 min 2012 After the rain drifted away and the sun comes out they come one by one, in harmony with the moans and groans from neighbors who just wanted a quiet moment. EVA OLSSON is a Swedish artist who works with contemporary art where moving image is her major way […]
Cone the 125th Street Fault
The West Harlem Art Fund is spearheading a public art initiative for the communities of West Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood. Communities along the Hudson River, want to enhance their open public spaces and attract artist locally, regionally and beyond. Northern Manhattan neighborhoods understand the benefits of the “arts” and that it can improve […]
LINE UP FOR LIGHTING INTERVENTION UNDER THE VIADUCT
SATURDAY’S LINEUP May 10, 2014 Artists Cynthia Beth Rudin D. Carlton Bright Dennis Hlynsky Dianne Smith Eduardo DiFarnecio Eileen Cohen Erik Sanner Eva Olsson Henry Gwiazda Jonas Nilsson Julian Bozeman Kathleena Howie Peter Rogina Rupert Nesbitt Steve Pavlovsky Harlem Biospace Guest Curator Linda Griggs
Regional & International Artists are joining Repurpose
The West Harlem Art Fund is so pleased to have regional artists Dennis Hlynsky and Dr. Henry Gwiazda joining our lighting intervention series as well as husband and wife team Jonas Nilsson and Eva Olsson from Sweden. Their participation is showing that West Harlem is budding a real art scene that is both contemporary and […]
Cross-borough collaboration for Repurpose under the 12th Avenue viaduct
Artists from Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn are now participating in the lighting intervention Repurpose. All of the interventions will be along 12th Avenue in local restaurants, sidewalks and buttress walls underneath the viaduct. The Riverside Drive Viaduct, also known as the 12th Avenue viaduct, was built in 1900 by the City of New York, […]
Meet Artist Yasmin Hernandez
Brooklyn-born and raised Puerto Rican artist Yasmin Hernandez’ work is rooted in struggles for personal, political and spiritual liberation. Her on-going project Bieké: Tierra de valientes combines oral history, painting, installation and video to explore the struggle for peace and justice in Vieques after decades of US Navy bombing maneuvers. Her 2011 mural Soldaderas, honors […]
FUƧION NEW YORK
FUƧION NEW YORK is an engaged, curator-driven art show. The organizers will produce up to 16 curatorial experiences for the public at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center. Our show will explore what it takes to live and express oneself as a full human being. Technology has not only changed our lives forever […]
Marcie Revens — Archived installation
In Dialogue Exhibition — Closer Conversation In June, The West Harlem Art Fund and the Humanities and Arts Division of City College are co-producing the outdoor exhibition In Dialogue. One of the installations is called Closer Conversation and features a series of mailboxes for visitors to submit various messages. This prompted the curator to look […]
DON’T WORRY …. WE GOT YOUR BACK
The West Harlem Art Fund is expanding its practice with urban art interventions. Our first will be an eyebombing at Riverside Park North. Eyebombing is the art of sticking “googly eyes” onto an inanimate object in the public sphere, in a way that cleverly lends the object the appearance of a living creature. We will […]