#bkmsocialaction

Have you heard of climate grief? It’s a term coined to describe that sense of mourning or concern that may wash over you regarding the ecological crisis. 

On November 3 at 7 pm, we’re hosting a conversation between artists and activists. This instance of Brooklyn Talks will cover strategies for addressing climate change and advancing environmental justice across art, social practice, policy, and grassroots organizing with:

🌊 Duke Riley, the artist behind “DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash” 🌳 Kizzy Charles-Guzman of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice 🍂 Larissa Belcic of Nocturnal Medicine 🌎 Michelle Shofet of Nocturnal Medicine 🌱 Ajay Singh Chaudhary of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

Get your ticket to #BkMTalks or learn more about #DukeRileyBkM: https://bit.ly/3TFGkAX

🌊 #NowOnView, “DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash.” 🌊

Trash transformed. In this solo exhibition by Duke Riley, roughly 250 new and recent works largely made of discarded plastic from New York waterways are on display. Many are shown inside two of our American period rooms, the seventeenth and eighteenth century Jan Martense Schenck and Nicholas Schenck houses, which you can walk through for the first time!

Do as the scrimshaw says and “Come with me…to the sea,” through April 23, 2023.

With the weather getting warmer, the impact of uneven tree distribution on New York City’s streets become apparent yet again. 

In connection with the newest #ArtOnTheStoop, Mona Chalabi created these two maps of Brooklyn highlighting the connection between temperature and trees based on data from the US Geological Survey’s Landsat 8 satellite published by the New York City Council, and a census of street trees in New York City conducted by volunteers working with NYC Parks.

I spy with my little eye… pencils, tampon applicators, lighters, and many more discarded household objects.

Several sailor’s valentines are on display throughout the exhibition and inside the 17th and 18th century Schenck houses in "DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash." Duke Riley’s take on this popular maritime art reflects a growing scarcity of seashells on beaches and a concurrent increase in plastic pollution. What objects do you see within the geometric patterns? 

Together with Guadalupe Maravilla and PPOW Gallery, we are collecting donations for asylum seekers arriving in New York City. Items can be placed in the donation bin at the front entrance of the Museum through October 30.

If you are interested in volunteering at the respite center associated with this donation drop off, please reach out to [email protected]. Volunteers must be able to speak Spanish and commit to at least one shift per week.

Situated at the nexus of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and Prospect Park, Mona Chalabi’s installation celebrates the biodiversity of our borough, inspiring passersby to see and appreciate trees through a more critical framework. Here she is on the stoop during a recent visit to the Museum.

Our friends at Jiggy Puzzles helped turn Mona’s beautiful illustrations into a special 500-piece jigsaw puzzle. Get yours at the #BkMShop in-person or online.

🔗 Mona Chalabi x Jiggy The Gray-Green Divide Puzzle

Two houses built by members of the Schenck family in the 17th and 18th centuries in what is now Brooklyn can be found on the fourth floor of the Museum and have recently become the setting for part of Duke Riley’s DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash. Swipe to see what the period room looked like prior to this exhibition as well as archival images of the house.

Duke Riley has activated these spaces, blanketing them with artworks inspired by the 19th century, and made from 21st century trash. A large chandelier constructed entirely from discarded bottles serves as a twinkling reminder of the everyday objects the viewer is actually seeing.

The older house, originally constructed by the Dutch immigrant, Jan Martense Schenck, in the 1670s, is the oldest period house in the Museum’s collection and one of the oldest historic houses in New York City. It stood for 275 years in what is now the Mill Basin neighborhood where the structure bore witness to radical changes to the environment at the hands of humanity, from meadows and wetlands, to the edge of one of the world’s most significant metropolises.

For decades, Brooklyn Museum curators have presented the house as it might have been around 1730. Though the house has already been preserved for centuries, Riley’s materials, the plastics here and those that remain in New York City’s waterways, will likely outlast the building they now decorate.

🔗 https://bit.ly/DukeRileyBkM

Nothing beats New York in the fall. Even with today being the Autumn Equinox and temperatures cooling down, on our stoop you’ll feel less heat than you would just ten blocks east or west because the surrounding trees are lowering the temperature. 

We spoke with Mona Chalabi about her ambitions for “The Gray-Green Divide” and transforming data from NYC Parks and Recreation into colorful, illustrative visualizations that engage us in confronting truths about inequities in our borough and about who has access to green space.