Calling all creatives: participate in MARY Inspiration Day!

Jim Ebersole painting the MARY A. WHALEN when we were located in the Red Hook Container Terminal

Dear Creatives,

You are invited to participate in MARY Inspiration Day at PortSide NewYork on Sunday 5/20/18!  This is inspired by the 80th birthday of our historic ship Mary A Whalen on May 21 and the diverse creative practice that has been inspired by our ship.  We plan to make this an annual event.  Are you a painter, sketcher, illustrator, poet, photographer, printmaker, choreographer, playwright, puppeteer, photographer, sound artist, quilter?  Any kind of creative?  Come create work inspired by MARY and our evocative maritime location.  

MARY Inspiration Day is designed inspire and showcase creatives and grow awareness through art that NYC is a city of water and boats, not just a city of skyscrapers and brownstones.  

Artists of diverse practice have already worked with us: Katherine Behar, an artist using artificial intelligence, video and sound to make a one-day installation. A printmaker using salt water. Dean Haspiel drew the MARY in his Red Hook Cartoon strip.  We helped a resident artist at De-Construkt Ester Grossi from Italy, see and understand maritime Red Hook, and she made a body of abstract work that will be in version 2.0 of our e-museum in May.

Felt art by Frank Hanavan. MARY A. WHALEN being rescued by tug Phoenix, based on a historic photo.

Creatives are invited as of 8:00am, and at 1pm the public is invited for TankerTours of the ship itself. Artists are welcome to remain after 1pm, and we hope you will do that to share your work with the public. We are giving you the morning to work with minimal distraction from the public.

Possible outdoor gallery:  

We are seeking permission to use the chain link fence next to the ship as an outdoor gallery.  If we get permission, there will be no charge to exhibit, though we would appreciate a 10% donation from sales to support our hurricane Sandy recovery project.

Digital gallery:  

We can give artists digital exposure by including work made or inspired by that day in our e-museum www.RedHookWaterStories.org. 

Details:

Sunday 5/20/18
8:00am Creatives invited to make work during Inspiration Day
1:00pm- 6pm  Public invited to TankerTours of ship MARY A. WHALEN

Where:  DirectionsPier 11, Atlantic Basin, next to the Red Hook NYC Ferry stop, just yards away from Pioneer Works. Near B61 bus stops for Verona and Pioneer Street. Lots of free parking on site.

Note: we are waiting for one event approval from site management (we got 2 of the 3 needed). 
We expect no issue with getting that, but need to state that it is just a proposal
until it is approved.

RSVP: please email us at chiclet@portsidenewyork.org.  We are obliged to have a headcount and make sure that artists are not impeding other uses on site, so we want to know who is here. Plus, we want to get to know you all!  Let us know if you want gallery space on the fence (again, we are waiting for approval to use the fence).

Who’s coming?

Here is what we know at the outset: The Urban Sketchers are coming as are plein air painters including Janice McDonnell “I plan to be there and will hopefully have painting buddies in tow.”  Frank Hanavan will be giving a water color class on deck during the afternoon.

This day is part of a month-long festival “The MARY month of May” honoring the 80th birthday of the tanker MARY A. WHALEN.  In May, PortSide also launches of our African American Maritime Heritage program and version 2.0 of our e-museum RedHookWaterStories.  

Still from Katherine Behar work, "Maritime Messaging," image courtesy of the Artist