BROADWAY: 1000 Steps
Marfa Dialogues, 2013
Mary Miss/City as Living Laboratory continued its BROADWAY: 1000 Steps project with a series of walking dialogues between artists and scientists. CaLL began conducting walks along Broadway in 2012 at the invitation of the Municipal Art Society. Building on the earlier walks which spanned the 18 mile length of Manhattan’s main artery, these walks focused on short segments of the avenue beginning at Bowling Green and 23rd Street, jumping up to 168th Street and ending at 183rd Street. The artist/scientist duos discussed, between themselves and the public, possible solutions to a variety of environmental challenges along the Broadway corridor, with particular focus on surrounding neighborhoods.
The WALKS were followed by a panel discussion on Tuesday, November 19, 6PM, at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (RRF) Project Space (455 W. 19th Street), entitled Shifting Domains: Artists Respond to the Threatened Ecological Commons. Participating artists and scientists included art historian Julie Reiss, author of From Margins to Center, The Spaces of Installation Art. Suzaan Boettger, art historian and critic, whose longstanding research focus has been contemporary land and environmentalist art, will moderate. The panel also included Mary Miss, artist, Matthew Jensen, artist, and Patrick Kinney, Scientist and Epidemiologist. Together they reflected on the erosion of traditional distinctions between art and utility and emerging hybrids of artistic, social, and ecological functionality and how various artists’ strategies are recasting the role of the artist as an effective catalyst for social and environmental change.
The CaLL/WALKS have been made possible with support by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in partnership with Marfa Dialogues/NY, an examination of climate change science, environmental activism and artistic practice taking place this October and November 2013 in New York City. Marfa Dialogues/NY is a collaboration between the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Ballroom Marfa and the Public Concern Foundation and will feature more than 20 Program Partners, including MM/CaLL ~ BROADWAY: 1000 Steps, and a spectrum of exhibitions, performance, and interdisciplinary discussions at the intersection of the arts and climate change. www.marfadialogues.org
CaLL/WALKS SCHEDULE and TOUR SYNOPSES
START LOCATION/ TIME
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27
David Brooks & John Waldman will reflect on the complexity and health of the marine life in the New York Harbor and how this invisible and dynamic life is indicative of the health of the urban environment.Bowling GreenNoon- 1:15
Jan Mun & Sabine Marx will discuss ways to encourage engagement with environmental sustainability and what motivates human behavior in face of environmental risk and climate change.Battery Park at the north entrance to the Battery Gardens restaurant1:15 – 2:30
Kristin Jones & Nina Lauren Bassuk will map a section of the roots of a great tree in Madison Square Park to decode the complexity of a tree’s life and the profound, palliative and therapeutic effects they have on the environment.23rd Street & Broadway – Madison Sq. Park2:45-4:00
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10
Ellen Driscoll & Benjamin Miller the density of commercial activity in stark contrast to the bucolic greenery of Madison Sq. Park provides a compelling area to discuss the ramifications of our trash and disposable culture.23rd Street & Broadway – Madison Sq. ParkNoon- 1:15
Marco Antonio Castro & Franco Montalto will demonstrate and provide an analysis of Castro’s proposed Bus Roots, a plan to outfit MTA busses with green roofs to mitigate storm-water runoff and the heat-island effect.Northwest Corner Broadway & 168th Street1:45-2:45
Matthew Jensen & Patrick Kinney will discuss the environmental factors that affect air quality and health on a route that begins at Columbia Presbyterian Columbia Hospital, continues along the George Washington Bridge to the bus terminal at 178th Street and its surround residences, and ends at highest point in Manhattan.Northwest Corner Broadway & 168th Street2:45-4:00