NEWSgrist - where spin is art

Riders on the Storm

Winkleman Gallery

via Artinfo:

As Galleries, Artists Limp Along, Donors Amass Millions for Sandy Relief Grants

by Rachel Corbett

Published: November 21, 2012

As Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts crawl forward in Chelsea, a growing number of donors are moving in to aid artists and galleries shaken by the storm. Upper East Side dealer William Acquavella has just pledged $100,000 to the Art Dealers Association of America’s Relief Fund, and one of his clients, who asked to remain anonymous, added another $200,000 on top of that. And all of this comes at the heels of Friday’s news that the fund had doubled its starting balance to $500,000.

“So many galleries are having a really rough time right now and have lost so much, we want to do whatever we can to help get them back on their feet,” Acquavella said in an email.

Today also marks the launch of one of the industry’s most ambitious recovery programs to date, a joint effort by the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Lambent Foundation, and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, which together have amassed around $3 million for artists and art organizations in need.

“We hope we can give to most everybody who has been hard-hit,” said Christy MacLear, executive director of the Rauschenberg Foundation, which plans to contribute around $500,000 to the cause. Along with $2 million from the Warhol Foundation, that funding will be split between grants for individual artists, administered through the New York Foundation for the Arts, and grants for arts organizations, applications for which are available on the new site Emergency Grants. The Lambent Foundation expects to provide another $250,000 to $500,000 to the NYFA fund.

For spaces like Chelsea’s Winkleman Gallery, which sustained severe structural damage, rebuilding could take up to six weeks — and that comes during the crucial lead-up to Art Basel Miami Beach. “The future was cloudy there for a while,” said owner Edward Winkleman. FEMA rejected his grant application and he had little time to focus on his participation in the upcoming Seven Art Fair in Miami.

But then he applied for the ADAA grant and had a $10,000 check in hand by the end of the week. “What the ADAA has enabled us to do is move forward with a little more confidence — particularly important for galleries our size — and to make preparations for Miami.”

The award amounts vary case by case, but the foundation-backed grants are expected to range from around $5,000 for individual artists to $25,000 for organizations. “We don’t know yet what’s going to come in,” said NYFA executive director Michael Royce. “But right now you can apply for funding for damage to physical space, damage to a home or studio, loss of equipment or supplies, or reimbursement for cancelled performances or engagements — and it could be many more things.”

As of now, there are no application deadlines. “We may find more need,” said MacLear, “and then I’ll go back to my board and ask for more money.”

 

Small Paintings Drive for Sandy Relief

Joy Garnett: "Blue" (2012) Oli on canvas. 14 x 11 inches.

 

Visit Small Paintings Drive for Sandy Relief on Facebook.

Visit Small Paintings Drive for Sandy Relief on Flickr.

I am releasing a number of small paintings for sale with 100% of proceeds to benefit hurricane Sandy victims. I am offering these works at a steep discount to encourage people to give generously to an emergency relief fund of their choice. First come first served. I'll take care of delivering your painting to your door, either by UPS or in person.

Donation // Valuation:
Your donation to Hurricane Sandy relief must be at least $500 where painting retail value = $1000. For larger, more expensive works, the amount of the donation must increase.

Instructions:
- Email me ([email protected]) to identify which painting you are interested in purchasing.

- Go online and send $500(+) to the Hurricane Sandy relief fund(s) of your choice.

- Forward me the confirmation email(s) thanking you for your donation.

- We will then arrange a convenient time and place for me to deliver your painting.

Some suggested organizations where you can send $$$ online:

1- Occupy Sandy in NY // Occupy Sandy in NJ
http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/donate/

2- Red Cross: Disaster Relief for Hurricane Sandy
http://www.redcross.org/hurricane-sandy

3- Red Hook Inititative: http://rhicenter.org/
Donate here: http://rhicenter.org/tag/hurricane-relief/

4- Food Bank NYC - Superstorm Sandy Emergency
https://secure3.convio.net/fbnyc/site/Donation2?idb=250696504&df_id=2781&2781.donation=form1

 

Visit Small Paintings Drive for Sandy Relief on Facebook.

Visit Small Paintings Drive for Sandy Relief on Flickr.

Other small paintings may also be made available in exchange for post-Sandy disaster relief. Please inquire if interested.

Occupy Sandy: A Movement Comes of Age

via The New York Times:

Image: Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times. ORIENTATION An Occupy Sandy collection-distribution center in Brooklyn.

Occupy Sandy: A Movement Moves to Relief

By ALAN FEUER Published: November 9, 2012

ON Wednesday night, as a fierce northeaster bore down on the weather-beaten Rockaways, the relief groups with a noticeable presence on the battered Queens peninsula were these: the National Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Police and Sanitation Departments — and Occupy Sandy, a do-it-yourself outfit recently established by Occupy Wall Street.

This stretch of the coast remained apocalyptic, with buildings burned like Dresden and ragged figures shuffling past the trash heaps. There was still no power, and parking lots were awash with ruined cars. On Wednesday morning, as the winds picked up and FEMA closed its office “due to weather,” an enclave of Occupiers was huddled in a storefront amid the devastation, handing out supplies and trying to make sure that those bombarded by last month’s storm stayed safe and warm and dry this time.

“Candles?” asked a dull-eyed woman arriving at the door.

“I’m sorry, but we’re out,” said Sofia Gallisa, a field coordinator who had been there for a week. Ms. Gallisa escorted the woman in, and someone gave her batteries for her flashlight. As she walked away, word arrived that a firehouse nearby was closing for the night; the firefighters there were hurrying their rigs to higher ground.

“It’s crazy,” Ms. Gallisa later said of the official response. “For a long time, we were the only people out here doing relief work.”

After its encampment in Zuccotti Park, which changed the public discourse about economic inequality and introduced the nation to the trope of the 1 percent, the Occupy movement has wandered in a desert of more intellectual, less visible projects, like farming, fighting debt and theorizing on banking. While several nouns have been occupied — from summer camp to health care — it is only with Hurricane Sandy that the times have conspired to deliver an event that fully calls upon the movement’s talents and caters to its strengths.

Maligned for months for its purported ineffectiveness, Occupy Wall Street has managed through its storm-related efforts not only to renew the impromptu passions of Zuccotti, but also to tap into an unfulfilled desire among the residents of the city to assist in the recovery. This altruistic urge was initially unmet by larger, more established charity groups, which seemed slow to deliver aid and turned away potential volunteers in droves during the early days of the disaster.

In the past two weeks, Occupy Sandy has set up distribution sites at a pair of Brooklyn churches where hundreds of New Yorkers muster daily to cook hot meals for the afflicted and to sort through a medieval marketplace of donated blankets, clothes and food. There is an Occupy motor pool of borrowed cars and pickup trucks that ferries volunteers to ravaged areas. An Occupy weatherman sits at his computer and issues regular forecasts. Occupy construction teams and medical committees have been formed.

Managing it all is an ad hoc group of tech-savvy Occupy members who spend their days with laptops on their knees, creating Google documents with action points and flow charts, and posting notes on Facebook that range from the sober (“Adobo Medical Center in Red Hook needs an 8,000 watt generator AS SOON AS POSSIBLE”) to the endearingly hilarious (“We will be treating anyone affected by Sandy, FREE of charge, with ear acupuncture this Monday”). While the local tech team sleeps, a shadow corps in London works off-hours to update the Twitter feed and to maintain the intranet. Some enterprising Occupiers have even set up a wedding registry on Amazon.com, with a wish list of necessities for victims of the storm; so far, items totaling more than $100,000 — water pumps and Sawzall saw kits — have been ordered.

“It’s a laterally organized rapid-response team,” said Ethan Gould, a freelance graphic artist and a first-time member of Occupy. Mr. Gould’s experience illustrates the effort’s grass-roots ethos. He joined up on Nov. 3 and by the following afternoon had already been appointed as a co-coordinator at one of the “distro” (distribution) sites.

[Read full article]

 

via The New Yorker:

November 3, 2012

Occupy Sandy

Posted by Larissa MacFarquhar

Belle Harbor, Queens, about halfway along the Rockaway peninsula, is four blocks across at its widest point—a splinter of East-West streets on a spit of land between the bay and the sea. Now that land is beach again. The roads are so densely packed under sand hardened into foot-high ruts and deep puddles that they seem like dirt paths, never paved. A car is suspended diagonally across the sidewalk of one of the main roads, its rear impaled on a low wall. A mangled wood fence lies in the street. In front of nearly every house is a massive pile of debris—chairs, tables, mattresses, torn bits of cloth, and garbage bags stuffed, presumably, with smaller, flimsier, more rotten things. Some of the houses have been inspected for safety by the city and have paper signs posted on their doors: green for safe, yellow for partly safe, red for not safe at all. Cloth and wood signs along Rockaway Beach Boulevard yesterday: “F.U. Sandy, Survivor beach party … BYO … GOD BLESS USA, Rockaway”; “U LOOT, WE SHOOT.”

At the St. Francis de Sales church on B-129th Street, the church hall has been taken over by Occupy Sandy—an offshoot of the still-active networks of Occupy Wall Street. Supplies have been driven here from all over Brooklyn: back there are piles of blankets; on the tables here are diapers, baby food, and cleaning supplies; over there, clothes (grownup, child, baby); more than a hundred pairs of shoes lined up neatly on the bleachers. Residents of the neighborhood wander around the hall, filling bags. In the front entranceway, Occupy volunteers are unloading cases of bottled water from a truck, handing the heavy cases one to the next, a bucket brigade to the back of the church. The volunteers move fast but the job lasts more than half an hour—it’s a big truck. In front of the church, long tables have been set up on the sidewalk, where volunteers are serving hot food and peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.

The Red Cross doesn’t accept individual donations of household goods—these things, it says, need to be cleaned, sorted, and repackaged, and all that takes up more time than they’re worth. It asks for financial donations only. But Occupy, as you would expect, has a different style. For instance: as soon as it was safe to go outside after the storm, first thing Tuesday morning, Michael Premo and a couple of people he knew got in a car and drove over to Red Hook. Premo is a freelance artist who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant and just turned thirty. He was at Zuccotti Park every day last fall, though he never slept there, and after the park encampment was disbanded he kept in touch with the movement. There are big neighborhood assemblies in Sunset Park and Red Hook, smaller ones elsewhere in Brooklyn. Many meet each week, organizing around local issues—rent strikes in Sunset Park, anti-gentrification in Crown Heights.

Premo worked in New Orleans after Katrina, and he had a sense that right after a disaster, a city’s efforts were focussed on search and rescue, rather than on providing supplies. He thought this was a gap that Occupy could fill. He knew some people at Red Hook Initiative, a community center on Hicks Street, so he and his friends drove over there and asked what was needed—food, light, blankets. Food most of all. He and some other people got back in the car and drove to the Rockaways. He isn’t sure when they got there—probably Tuesday evening. Houses were still on fire. They walked around and asked people what they needed most.

Meanwhile, organizing was going on: we need to make food, we need a kitchen. The Red Hook Initiative has a kitchen but it’s too small. Phone calls. There’s a church on Fourth Avenue at Fifty-fifth Street, in Sunset Park, St. Jacobi, whose pastor likes Occupy—they have a big kitchen. They also have a hall that can be used as a headquarters to receive donations. Done—meet there. Get in the car. Somebody set up a Web site, there needs to be a short, clear list of what is needed and where to take it. Make sure it stays updated. Phone calls. We need volunteers to sort donations. We need sandwiches made. We need tinfoil to wrap the sandwiches in. We need people to drive out to Zone A to deliver supplies. People are running low on gas, not everyone can get to Sunset Park. Phone calls. Satellite drop-off centers for donations established in Fort Greene, Park Slope, Williamsburg, and Bed-Stuy. Phone calls. Coördinate with people in Manhattan—CAAAV, an Asian-American organization on Hester Street, is asking for volunteers in Chinatown. Can anyone get to Chinatown? The people at Good Old Lower East Side need volunteers to knock on doors in housing projects to see if old or sick people need help—they’re doing it between twelve and six every day and they need as many people as they can get (we’re sending hundreds). Someone needs to go out to the Rockaways and figure out a distribution center. Maybe St. Francis de Sales. It’s on 129th Street. Remember, phones don’t work there. Neither do traffic lights.

On Rockaway Beach Boulevard, a Polish woman walked away from St. Francis de Sales carrying full bags. She and her son had a place to stay right now, with her husband’s family in a Polish building, but they couldn’t stay there for much longer. She wasn’t sure where they would go next. She had lived in a basement—everything was ruined. She knew that a lot of other people were in the same situation. She knew that. But what got her was, on the street where she was staying, some people had clean driveways. Not just cleared of debris—no. Perfectly clean. Swept. Clean as a floor inside your house. That was what got her.

An earlier version of this post misstated the volunteer policy of the organization New York Cares. Those who wish to volunteer in the group’s Sandy-related projects do not need to attend an orientation session beforehand.

See our full coverage of Hurricane Sandy.

Photograph by Adrian Fussell/Reportage by Getty Images. See a slide show of more images of Sandy at Photo Booth.

Keywords

• Hurricane Sandy

POSTED IN

• News Desk

Arts-Specific Emergency Funding Post-Hurricane Sandy

Image: Greenpoint Studios, 99 Commercial St. via ArtInfo

 

This is a more comprehensive art-specific list and follow-up to our Nov 1st post: Hurricane Sandy Relief: Resources.  

Complied links to emergency funding sources, info and articles, A - Z (Sat Nov 3, 2012):

 

Joan Mitchell Foundation - Emergency Program

The Joan Mitchell Foundation provides emergency support to artists working in the mediums of painting, sculpture, and/or drawing after natural or manmade disasters that have affected a community. Artists who have suffered losses due to catastrophic situations of this nature can apply to the Foundation for funding. Please contact the Joan Mitchell Foundation for additional information at [email protected].

The Foundation's emergency funding is specific to natural or man-made disasters. We acknowledge the tremendous need for support following personal emergencies, such as medical related expenses, however the Foundation is currently unable to provide this type of emergency funding.

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Mister ArtSee - Brooklyn Artists Relief

www.Facebook.com/MisterArtSee 646-824-8300 

The devastation from hurricane Sandy has had a major impact for the arts community. Flooding as high as 10' caused extensive damage to the Red Hook, Gowanus, and DUMBO areas. These areas are filled with ground floor art related businesses: foundries, metal shops, wood shops, fabricators, art movers, etc, who saw machinery, materials and partially completed work completely destroyed. The damage many of these art professionals have suffered will effect the whole arts community that rely on them for needed services. The insurance coverage these companies have will not be enough and other funds will all be loans for this kind of loss.

Mister ArtSee, the nation's mobile art laboratory, and the ART© group have set up an emergency relief fund for artists and art professionals who have suffered losses due to hurricane Sandy. 100% of all funds will go directly to companies and artists affected by the storm. Funds will be used directly to repair and replace needed equipment and supplies so that we can try and keep their livelihoods and services going. Mister ArtSee is a 501(c)3 arts organization and all contributions are tax deductible.

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NYFA - ART-SPECIFIC SANDY RECOVERY RESOURCES

Please, see below for Superstorm Sandy recovery information.  Art-specific resources are listed first, followed by non-art specific emergency resources listed by state.

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HURRICANE SANDY - ARTISTS' RELIEF EXCHANGE

The primary purpose is to assist artists who have had a career threatening emergency, but also serves artists who are just starting out and artists who need resources to take the next step in their careers.

http://exchange.craftemergency.org/

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POST-SANDY ART RECOVERY 

ArtsReady has compiled a comprehensive list of resources for conserving artwork, post-storm. Review links to find information about stabilizing works, repairing damage, and contacting relevant organizations for assistance.

http://us2.forward-to-friend1.com/forward/show?u=d978aeb7b11c25a41fe65fbd1&id=7bb9562319

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ARTSREADY

Information about art recovery resources and emergency grants. 

https://www.artsready.org/page/useful_links

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AMERICAN INSTITUTE CONSERVATION OF HISTORIC AND ARTISTIC WORKS COLLECTION EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM (AIC-CERT)

AIC-CERT can aid any institution, organization, collectors, or artists who were impacted by Hurricane Sandy.  Resources and information on disaster recovery and salvage can be found on the AIC website at www.conservation-us.org/disaster. 

• Call AIC’s 24-hour assistance number at 202.661.8068 for advice by phone.

• Call 202.661.8068 to arrange for a team to come to the site to complete damage assessments and help with salvage organization.

• They can also be reached via email - [email protected]

CHRISTIE'S REACHES OUT TO DOWNTOWN ARTISTS/GALLERIES

Christie’s is arranging space for artists to use their laptops and charge their phones, and may be able to assist galleries with storage space for their art. Those interested, please call (212) 468-7177.

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CRAFT EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND (CERF)

[email protected], 802-229-2306

http://craftemergency.org/artists_services/emergency_relief/grants_loans

• RAPID RELIEF: EMERGENCY GRANTS  -- CERF+’s Emergency Grants are designed to provide immediate help to eligible craft artists after career-threatening emergencies. The maximum potential Emergency Grant is $3,000. The maximum potential Emerging Professional Craft Artist Emergency Grant is $2,000. CERF+ loans and other CERF+ grants are not available to those qualifying for this grant program. 

• CAREER RECOVERY: EMERGENCY RECOVERY LOAN -- CERF+’s Emergency Recovery Loan is used by an eligible craft artist to re-establish, improve, or possibly expand his/her work capacity after an emergency. The maximum potential Emergency Recovery Loan is $8,000. No interest is charged and loans must be repaid within five years. To be considered for an Emergency Recovery Loan, applicants must answer all applicable application questions, provide a cash flow projection statement for the next 12 months as well a short, loan-related business plan.

FOR ARTISTS LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVE PERFORMANCE OR REHEARSAL SPACES IN NEW YORK

NYC Performing Arts Space is a website geared towards performers in dance, theater and music, who are in need of a venue to rehearse, teach a private class or perform. 

http://nycpaspaces.org/spaces

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STATE-BY-STATE SANDY EMERGENCY RESOURCES [FULL LIST]

[This is an amazing resource, including things like where to charge your cellphone, where there are open gas stations, where to get a hot shower.]

Residents and business owners who suffered damage due to Hurricane Sandy can begin applying for Federal Emergency Management Assistance (FEMA). To register go to www.disasterassistance.gov or call 1-800-621-3362 or 1-800-462-7585 (TTY) between 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Saturday until further notice.

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Staten Island Arts

Recovering from Sandy, by MelanieC On November 1, 2012

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Image: West 27th St., via Artinfo

 

ARTICLES A - Z

Via Art in America:

Chelsea Galleries Hit Hard by Storm Sandy, by Brian Boucher 10/31/12

Smack Mellon Studios in Dumbo Destroyed, by Leigh Anne Miller 11/01/12

Via ArtInfo, Nov 2, 2012 Arts roundup:

In the wake of superstorm Sandy, Julia Halperin reported from ravaged Chelsea and also examined the anticipated cost for galleries, while Sara Roffino visited flooded artists studios in Greenpoint and Allison Meier surveyed the damage to art spaces in DUMBO and Gowanus. Curator Klaus Biesenbach announced he was encouraging volunteers to aid suffering Rockaway Beach this Saturday. Ben Davis looked to what the long-term impact of Sandy on the NYC art world might be.

 

Via ArtFagCity:

[Updated] How to Volunteer for Hurricane Sandy Clean Up by Corinna Kirsch on November 1, 2012

You’ve seen the pictures. You’ve read the tweets. New York City looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland along its waterfront. Among the many things New York City needs right now, clean up is one of them. The art world is rallying, too.

Hurricane Sandy Looms Large Over DUMBO by Corinna Kirsch on October 31, 2012

Flood Damage Tips From AXA ART by Whitney Kimball on October 31, 2012

Photos from the Aftermath in Chelsea by Whitney Kimball on October 31, 2012

Via Artforum Scene & Herd:

After the Flood, New York, 11.01.12 by Linda Yablonsky

Via GalleristNY:

Dustin Yellin Clears Red Hook Studio After Sandy, Contemplates Future
By Rozalia Jovanovic 11/01 1:15pm

Chelsea Galleries Begin Recovery Work
By Andrew Russeth 11/01 8:07pm  

[Liveblog] Hurricane Sandy and New York Art World
By Rozalia Jovanovic, Michael H. Miller, Andrew Russeth and Dan Duray 11/02 11:20am

Via NYTimes:

Where Creations Faced Destruction, by ALLAN KOZINN, October 31, 2012

Critic's Notebook: For Galleries, a Test of Tenacity, by ROBERTA SMITH, November 2, 2012

Artsbeat: Museum of Modern Art to Offer Presentation on Conserving Flood-Damaged Artworks, by CAROL VOGEL, November 2, 2012, 4:22 pm

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