Subway Map by Cathleen Parra Michael Cesarczyk

Greetings from North Brooklyn

North Brooklyn is reviving the lost art of the postcard.

Before e-mail, when people travelled to distant lands, they corresponded with friends and family via a small piece of paper containing a memorable image on one side and their personal note on the other. Nowadays, most prefer to tweet an emoticon on a smartphone or post a photo on Facebook. Seeking to recall the not-so-distant past, but with a modern spin, local art space Arts@Renaissance presented over 100 postcards by 90 artists, last Saturday, – ranging from the picturesque to the avant-garde – to its North Brooklyn neighbors.

Though titled “Postcards to North Brooklyn,” the show did not feature images of exotic locales. Instead, most of the 4×6 artworks presented visions of everyday life in North Brooklyn. Moreover, most of the artists featured live or work in Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Bushwick. This created a delightful twist on traditional postcards – North Brooklyn residents sending a special message to their neighbors in a city so vast, neighborhoods can seem like countries.

The event also served as a fundraiser for Arts@Renaissance, which is operated by St. Nick’s Alliance, a community non-profit that offers housing assistance and economic development for low- and moderate-income residents. In the spirit of St. Nick’s, Arts@Renaissance focuses on local art that address the needs and diverse character of North Brooklyn. All the artists, some of whom have been showcased in the past, were glad to donate their work for a good cause. “We’re a fledging institution,” said Arts@Renaissance Program Manager Chris Henderson. “We hope we can grow. This is the first time we’ve attempted something like this.”

But they weren’t the only ones that gave a hand. Lorimer Market and Settepani provided snacks while Shantell Martin gave an interactive video performance. Local band OBM gave a free concert, playing a medley of Neil Young and Beatles songs. Attendees also helped by participating in raffles for other works of art and a new Joan Mitchell biography. Postcards were on sale for $50 each, but a few patrons managed to jump to the front of the picking-line for $75.

Despite being the same size, the postcards showed a wide variety of styles and themes. Nikolay Milushev’s macabre re-imagining of St. Nick’s Renaissance Building featured haunting figures in gas masks and a floating mass of skulls, perhaps a nod to nearby Newtown Creek – one of the most polluted waterways in the country. Addriene Ottenberg presented a pink and yellow map of Brooklyn in which lines from Walt Whitman’s poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” rest on lines indicating major streets of the borough. James Clark made a postcard out of phosphorous and acrylic acid which could glow in the dark.

Artists and curators who attended the show were excited to engage the community that inspired them. “The show is about community spirit and the participation citizens of all demographics and all walks of life,” said Joseph Franquinha, who selected artwork for the show from last June’s Crest Hardware Art Show.

“This was a remarkable exhibition and a fun event,” said District Leader Lincoln Restler, who was impressed by the diversity of the miniature artworks. “It’s wonderful to see the artists of North Brooklyn donating their work to support a great neighborhood cause. I love seeing the imagination of our neighborhood in the medium of a postcard.”

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