FEEDBACK Closing: Sustainability Action Day: Toxic Tours + Urban Gardening

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Sustainability Action Day: Toxic Tours + Urban Gardening
Date: April 19, 3 – 6PM
FEEDBACK Closing Reception: 6PM
Location: Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St., NYC
Cost: Free

Join Feedback artists Natalie Jeremijenko, Leah Gauthier, and Brooke Singer for a day of workshops.

Natalie Jeremijenko will lead a surface-level noPARK action on a plot of pavement in Chelsea (within a short walk of Eyebeam, exact location TBA the day of the event).

noPARK is a public art project to create “no parking zones" of micro-engineered green spaces to prevent storm water runoff, use foliage to stabilize the soil, and provide a durable low maintenance surface cover.

In order to help raise funds for the noPARK project that the artist plans to implement throughout the city, limited-edition potted plants will be sold as "shares" of the project (complete with certificates) at Eyebeam for $10. (A single noPARK zone is estimated to cost approximately $6000 to implement.) Shareholders will be encouraged to take their plants to the site of the April 19 noPARK for the 3-6PM action.

Leah Gauthier will lead Sow-In, in which participants will distribute hundreds of seed pots to community gardeners across the city for transplant, care, harvest, and seed saving.

Brooke Singer with Michael Heimbinder and Emily Gallagher will conduct a virtual toxic tour followed by a hands-on workshop. The virtual tour will focus on a site in Greenpoint, Brooklyn that is currently undergoing contamination evaluation by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Health. Together they will explore the region’s historic and current industries, detail the contaminants of concern and discuss potential remedies. In the second part of the workshop, the artists will provide resources for participants to identify toxic exposures in their own neighborhoods. The workshop will end with a group discussion of effective organizing strategies and ways to develop activist networks .

Brooke Singer is a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) 2007 Artist Fellowship recipient. This presentation is co-sponsored by Artists & Audiences Exchange, a NYFA public program.