Art All Around Us — 2.19.25
... and one way creativity is critical at this time ...
On the Button
I took this photo (below) on Monday at the Trump/Musk protest march in downtown Manhattan. It was fiercely cold, but everyone around me was a good distraction, especially their creative protest signs. And the many musicians, including the drummer in photo, shared beats and song, positive stuff that got us moving … clapping hands, swinging hips. It instantly connected people who never met, providing wind at our back to keep moving … together.
Arts of all kinds play a positive role in movements. They makes us laugh, connect, create, and push for peace and justice. Art is sustenance and inspiration too.
That’s what I experienced on Sunday. It’s just the beginning.
One more thing: When I downloaded this photo I noticed that the drummer has a button on his jacket. It says: “Artists for a Free World.” Amen.
ART OPENINGS/RECEPTIONS
Upcoming at the Bronx River Art Center is “Resilient Roots: Ecofeminism in Video Performance.” It “explores the profound intersection of ecofeminism and contemporary art through the lens of six prominent Latin American artists. It opens on March 1, closes on April 18, and the opening reception is on March 6 from 6 to 8 PM. All the info here.
ART EXHIBITS
Maybe you’d call this a nature exhibit (photos above), but it’s artsy simultaneously (as I and many consider the great outdoors to be). “The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism,” will be open at The New York Botanical Garden’s Haupt Conservatory (across from Fordham University in the northwest Bronx) through April 27. All the info here. I went last Friday and saw orchids in colors I had never seen.
While there is a charge for the above for nonmembers, the outdoors of NYBG is always FREE for Bronx residents. Click here to learn more and register for a visit.
Celebrating Black History Month, Blue Door Art Center in downtown Yonkers presents the group exhibit, “Ancestors,” curated by Dennis Shelton, on through March 1. FREE! More info here. And click here to see the works online (not the same as seeing it in person, but beautiful nonetheless).
At Wave Hill’s Winter Workspace 2025, through March 2, several New York area artists research and develop work informed by the site, ecology and history of Wave Hill. All the details here.
At Bronx Council on the Arts’ Longwood Art Gallery in Westchester Square, the exhibit “Support Systems” “challenges dominant cultural narratives that celebrate American exceptionalism and capitalist individualism, featuring works from eight artists and one collective. The exhibition reflects on historical failures of the U.S. government, examines contemporary crises, and explores new possibilities for the future.” It’s on through Feb. 25. All the info here.
At the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers there are several exhibits to go see, including “Alvin C. Hollingsworth: And All That Jazz,” (photo of his work below) through April 27; “Clay Conversations: Ceramics for the Gilded to the Digital Age,” through March 9; and “Collection Spotlight: Cityscapes,” which is ongoing. All current exhibits listed here.
Hostos Center for Arts & Culture presents the exhibit “Roots and Rebirth: Dominican Women in Art,” through April 16. It “showcases 22 contemporary Dominican women artists deeply connected to their history and traditions, yet forging a fresh vision of their culture through new ideas, influences, and expressions.” All the info here. FREE!
Through March 28, the Riverfront Art Gallery (part of Yonkers Public Library) in downtown Yonkers presents the exhibit “EMPOWERED,” a group exhibit. “Art guides us to imagine new realities. It gives voice to the disappeared, the marginalized, and the unseen. EMPOWERED features artwork that guides us to imagine new realities and that allows us to be transported to worlds unknown and known. This exhibition calls out the many instances of injustice and leads the way to a more just and empowering future — one where we find community and see each other reflected in our world. Curated by Haifa Bint-Kadi.” All the info here. FREE!
“FUTURA 2000: BREAKING OUT” at the Bronx Museum is “a retrospective of this singular artist’s evolution from early graffiti art styles to his current practice of contemporary abstraction. The exhibition is the most comprehensive examination of FUTURA 2000’s five-decade career ever presented in his hometown of New York City.” It runs through March 20. FREE!
The Casita Maria Gallery, of the Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education in Hunts Point, presents the exhibit “Animal Studies,” by Maria P. Vila, through March 6. The work of Vila, a teaching artist at Casita Maria, “features a series of watercolor, soft pastel and oil paintings combining animal imagery with poetry and collage as a form of healing.” FREE!
The exhibit, “The Art of the Wrapping,” at Lehman College Art Gallery is on through May 3 and its opening reception is on Wed., Feb. 19 from 5 to 8 PM. FREE! All the info here.
FILM
There are two free films to see at BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance!) in Westchester Square, on Thurs., Feb. 20 and Fri., Feb. 21. It’s part of their FREE Queer Night Movie Series. More info on each here and here. (By the way, in case you don’t know this, the only actual movie theatre in the Bronx is AMC Bay Plaza in the east Bronx. Same for bookstores — only The Lit. Bar in Mott Haven. Hope that changes some day somehow. (1.4 million people inhabit the borough!) In the meantime grateful that art establishments provide some of it.
PHOTOGRAPHY/VIDEO
Through April 6 Seis del Sur presents the excellent, moving group exhibition: “HISTORIAS: The Stories Behind the Images,” at the Museum of Bronx History in Norwood, including a discussion with the photographers in March (I’ll give you the date when it is set). The founding group of six (one is Edwin Pagan —see photos above) added the first two women to the group and they are included in this exhibit. The museum is open on Saturdays, 10 AM to 4 PM. Private tours via appointment are available throughout the week. All FREE! “It’s an interactive multimedia exhibition that explores the collective’s early documentary photographs of The Bronx as well as those of friends and colleagues,” explains the Bronx County Historical Society. Their images — many unseen and stretching back decades — reshape the borough’s narrative and personalize it with anecdotes about the images on display.” S
Bronx Documentary Center in Melrose presents the exhibit, “School Shooting in America.” The exhibit is on through March 16. Featuring the moving works of Zackary Canepari, Tamir Kalifa, and Callaghan O’Hare, the show “is meant to highlight the facts around America’s firearms and profile some of the thousands of young people and families who have been affected by school shootings since the Columbine massacre in 1999.” FREE!
Through April 8, En Foco and Kreate Hub present the curated group photo exhibit “Entre el Silencio: Meditations on Silence” at WallWorks. “The exhibition is part of En Foco’s mission to uplift, validate, and preserve the culture and legacy of diasporic lens-based artists.” Click here for more information. FREE!
In partnership with Pregones, En Foco presents the exhibition “In The Spirit Y En El Espíritu: Works by Mariana Yampolsky” at the Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (575 Walton Ave., Bronx). It runs through March 31 and features portraits by Mexican photographer Yampolski (1925–2002), and is curated by Xavier Robles Armas. FREE!
The Derfner Judaica Museum in Riverdale, features the photo exhibit: “Leonard Nones: Portraits of Resilience” through March 30. “A professional fashion and advertising photographer for 50 years, Nones has created a series of portraits of his neighbors at RiverWalk, an independent living residence at RiverSpring Living on the campus of the Hebrew Home. Nones displays a lifetime of experience as a professional photographer in drawing out the vibrant expressions and animated spirit of his subjects.” (All the info here and this photo from exhibit can be seen in recent edition.)
Upstream Gallery, in Hastings-on-Hudson, features the photo exhibit “Anaphora,” through Feb. 23.
THEATRE
The Bartow-Pell Mansion in Pelham Bay Park in the East Bronx features the play, “Emma,” based on Jane Austen’s novel, March 1 through March 9. All the details and tickets here.
I don’t want to miss this as I saw a similar show there last year and really loved it: “48 Hours in El Bronx,” presented by Pregones/PRTT Theatre in the South Bronx along with Harlem 9 on Feb. 23, features a “phenomenal roster of Latinx theater artists gather[ing] for an intensive theater-making marathon, creating six new short plays. This year’s plays will celebrate Bronx Healing through the poetry of NuYorican Poet’s Café’s executive director, Caridad De la Luz a.k.a. ‘La Bruja’.” There are two performances the same day, one at 6 PM and the other at 8:30 PM. All the info and tickets here.
MUSIC & MORE
The Bronx Music Heritage Center in partnership with the Bangladesh Academy of Fine Arts (BAFA) invite you to celebrate International Mother Language Day with a literary fair, music and dance by BAFA and poetry in various languages on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 4 PM. It’s at the new Bronx Music Hall, 438 E. 163rd St. Get tickets, $10, and more info here.
Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in Bedford Park presents the 35th Anniversary Concert of merengue artist Kinito Ménendez on Sat., Feb. 22 at 8 PM. Info and tickets here.
As usual, there is a lot of great live music, as well as art and theatre, to check out at An Beal Bocht Café in Riverdale. Open mics are always on Tuesday at 8:30 PM. Much more info on upcoming happenings here.
EVENTS/WORKSHOPS/CLASSES
“A Playdate with Color and Symbols,” might sound like it’s just for kids, but it’s focused on adults, yet family friendly. All the info here. It’s this Friday from 6 to 7:30 PM at the Bronx Library Center on Kingsbridge Road (right by Fordham Road).
BxArtsFactory in Melrose provides a useful series of video lessons on their website for families doing art at home.
There are various kids’ art workshops at Bronx Children’s Museum. Info here (scroll down page for listing). And here’s a link to all the “active” exhibit space and happenings.
Blue Door Art Center in downtown Yonkers offers FREE classes/programs for kids on Saturday mornings.
Bronx Council on the Arts has a great listing of organizations that provide various opportunities, grants and projects for artists of all kinds.
If you’re a writer working on a novel or memoir, check out this FREE in-person novel-memoir writing workshop by Rob Jacklosky, an English professor at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, who recently won a BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) Award from Bronx Council on the Arts for his fiction writing. The University and BCA are sponsoring the workshop with Jacklosky’s leadership. “Publishers routinely ask for the ‘first 5 pages’ of any prospective novel or memoir to accompany Query Letters, and this workshop will help revise or polish those first five pages!” Jacklosky explains. Interested writers must email 5 to 10 pages of their work (as a Word Document or PDF) to rob.jacklosky@umsv.edu by March 10. The two-day workshops are on March 25 and April 1 from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
GRANTS/RESIDENCIES
Bronx Council on the Arts announces an open call to artists for residencies at Governor’s Island. Applications are due Feb. 25. All the info here.
I hope you find something here to check out and enjoy. Would love to hear about what you’ve experienced or what you’ve discovered that I haven’t. And related to that, I just created an email address just for this newsletter: aaaubronx@gmail.com.
Peace, Salaam, Shalom, Paz, etc. … ,
Jordan