Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. On June 17th, 2020 we will be celebrating nine outstanding awardees.

George Cominskie is a beloved longtime West Village and Westbeth community activist, having lived in the latter since 1983. George was President of the Westbeth Artist Residents Council (WARC) from 1989 to 1992, from 2002 to 2010, and again from 2012 to 2018. Working with WARC and Village Preservation, George helped lead the charge for expanded landmark protections in the Far West Village, including of Westbeth, and to stop inappropriate development in the surrounding neighborhood. George has been a tireless advocate for the residents and artists of Westbeth, and for keeping Westbeth a an affordable and well-functioning community. Especially as Westbeth, which opened on May 19, 1970, celebrates its 50th anniversary, we are proud to honor George as a Village Awardee this year.

During the COVID-19 crisis, George is running the Emergency Response Committee at Westbeth. They have organized floor captains and food and pharmacy runs for residents who can’t get out themselves. This isn’t George’s first crisis, as he also helped lead Westbeth and its residents through the incredibly difficult recovery from Sandy, when the lower floors of the complex where residents’ artworks were stored were flooded and many apartments had to be evacuated for long periods of time.

– Sam Moskowitz
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Off the Grid Blog
May 19, 2020

Read the full article HERE

Olive Ayhens “Comelid in the City” oil on canvas

“Ancient Critters was originally curated as a small exhibit at Russell Janis together with some of Olive’s drawings and paintings from Ur-Beasts. It had been scheduled for April 2020 but due to COVID-19, we moved the exhibit online, including audio of Olive speaking about how the series came to be.”

-Russell Janis Project Space

“Olive Ayhens virtuoso paintings in watercolor and oil could not be more embedded in our present moment of climate crisis. Yet, the theme of the collision of nature and humans, of the beauty of nature and our power to extinguish it, has been the main focus of Ayhens’ work for many decades.”

-Susan Platt (excerpt from Olive Ayhens 2019 catalog published by Brookstein Projects, New York)

To see the work and more information, click HERE

Olive Ayhens “Ancient Critters” Linocut print

In 2019, painter Olive Ayhens began conversations with printmaker Janis Stemmermann to make a print. This resulted in a single color linoleum block print, printed in March 2020 in an edition of twelve. Olive had been working on a group of drawings and paintings called Ur-Beasts, and this print, entitled Ancient Critters came from that series of works. Feeling extremely fed up with humans and their seemingly constant violent actions, Olive went deep into time to investigate the mammals that came before us, and no longer exist. We feel the immense weight of this project today.

We are excited to announce that 20% of the proceeds of each numbered print will be given to Project EATS, a Brooklyn based non-profit program founded by artist and activist Linda Goode Bryant. Using art, urban agriculture, partnerships and social enterprise, Project EATS works with Black and Brown communities to sustainably produce and equitably distribute fresh food and produce. It is time we usher in fundamental changes.

For more info on buying the print, click HERE

After I came out in 1975, I escaped from my conservative Catholic upbringing in New Jersey and moved to the East Village to be a dyke. Continue reading →

Waiting for the Parade on 7th Avenue 2019 Photo: Mary McKenna Ridge

The Pride March Is Coming!

. Art of Our Century is thrilled to announce its reopening on Friday, June 26, with a group photo show, “Pride Marches On: Celebrating 50 Years.” The exhibit runs through July 19.

The gallery is located at 137 West 14th St. in Greenwich Village,
midway between Union Square and the Meatpacking District.
We are open Thursday thru Sunday, 12 noon to 6 pm, and by appointment.

Photographers in the exhibit are Barbara Alper, Fred W. McDarrah, Meryl Meisler, Suzanne Poli, Mary McKenna Ridge, Darleen Rubin, and Allan Tannenbaum. . Sixty photos, some dating to the first year of the March, will be exhibited, many never before publicly seen.

Opening and Gallery Guidelines
In order to minimize crowds, the opening reception will stretch over three days. It will take place Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 26, 27 and 28, from 12 noon to 6 pm each day.

NO ONE WILL BE ADMITTED TO THE GALLERY WITHOUT A MASK OR FACE COVERING!
The facilities are cleaned daily. No more than 10 individuals will be permitted in the gallery at any one one time. If people are waiting, guests will be asked to limit the length of their visits. Thanks in advance for your cooperation!
Wine, and hand sanitizer, will be available to gallery guests at all times.

For more information, please click http://ArtofOurCentury.com and follow us on Instagram at @artofourcentury and on Facebook.

The first organized Pride parade, then known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, took place on June 28, 1970, a year after the Stonewall uprising.

The March, from Christopher Street up to Central Park, took less than half the scheduled time, partly due to excitement, but also due to fear from the participants about openly walking through the city with gay-positive banners and signs.

This year, most events marking the Golden Jubilee, including the March scheduled for Sunday, June 28, have been postponed due to the global pandemic.

But Art of Our Century felt it important to not let the occasion pass without being recognized. In these turbulent times, it is important to look back and salute previous generations of those fighting for change.

With a wink toward Peggy Guggenheim’s iconic 1942-1947 gallery of a similar name, Art of Our Century showcases, as Guggenheim did, both young and unknown artists working in all mediums, mixed in with more established names.

The legendary gallerist Patti Astor – whose iconic Fun Gallery put Graffiti and the East Village art scene on the map in the 1980s – is a consultant to the young venture.

Madeleine Yayodele Nelson

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Off the Grid Blog
Lannyl Stephens
June 8, 2020

It was a project like no other before. The first subsidized housing for artists in the United States, offering affordable housing and work space in New York City, Westbeth is a large scale adaptive reuse of an industrial building for both artistic and residential purposes. And it celebrates 50 years of life this year.

We are proud to highlight the remarkable history of Westbeth throughout this year on its golden anniversary. Today’s post is in memoriam of all the African American artists who lived and worked at this place of great diversity and creativity. We honor and salute them for the contributions they made to our society and hope that our post will encourage you to take a further look at their work and their lives.

Article includes:
Benny Andrews
George Barrow
Patti Bown
Carole Byard
Carol Cole
Moses Gunn
Hugh Hurd
Gilbert Moses
Madeleine Yayodele Nelson
Cordell Reagon
Freddie Waits
Dudley Williams

Read the entire article HERE