MotherSister Brooklyn

As I mentioned a couple of months ago, my favorite place to meander with The Scamp is the Pratt Institute’s Sculpture Park. The park will be featured in this weekend’s OpenHouseNewYork activities, along with the Pratt Library, Higgins Hall, the Juliana Terian Curran Design Center, and the Caroline Ladd Pratt House.

The park’s curator, Professor David Weinrib, remembers that the first sculptures featured included a Louise Bourgeois piece and a “big cement nude in front of the engineering building.” More than 50 sculptures are now part of an ever-changing cast, and I asked Professor Weinrib about his selection process. Style-wise, “People think I’m trying to make a balanced situation,” he noted with a hint of bemusement. “I’m the sole curator and I just choose works that interest me, based not so much on style as much as quality. Some artists send me work, but most I go and find myself.” Bringing new works to the park is a wooing process, sometimes one that takes years. “Well-known sculptors aren’t after me,” he said dryly. It took 12 meetings with Mark di Suvero, for example, to get to yes.

As you might guess, taking care of the sculptures isn’t easy. “[Maintenance] is always a big problem,” Professor Weinrib said. Not only must the sculptures withstand the elements, they also must be protected from humanity. “There’s some hooliganism,” he acknowledged without dwelling on it. Luckily, he has an assistant, Jacques Zanetti, to help; he was repairing the blue pyramid as we spoke. You may soon have more insight into what it’s like to be the steward of one of the ten best college art collections: Professor Weinrib is writing a book about the experience of curating the park — A Curator’s Journal seems to be the working title — and he seemed hopeful that it would be published with the help of a small grant from the school.

Tours of the Sculpture Park will be given at 2pm and 3pm on Saturday, October 6. Keep an eye out for a couple of new pieces, one about the commodification of light in the city and the other about the 18 rules of tree installation in New York. Sculptors hoping to catch Professor Weinrib’s eye can write to him at 521 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011.

Grace Tappin projects a serenity that serves as a walking advertisement for her studio, Move With Grace, which offers a full menu of yoga (hatha, vinyasa, and kundalini), dance, and fitness classes. Tappin, a Brooklyn native and a dancer who studied with the Joffrey Ballet, began her yoga practice while attending Cornell University; opening a multipurpose studio with a comfortable community feel seemed to be a natural step. Pratt and St. Joe’s students particularly love the late-night sessions, but regular patrons from as far as New Jersey are also clearly drawn to the studio’s energy. “That’s the great thing about a dance studio,” Grace says. “People will travel far if they really love the classes.” Kum Kau’s foot traffic has also helped boost its profile among residents of nearby areas. The studio is a genuine labor of love that “doesn’t feel like work at all,” she says. “I’ve met so many interesting people in the neighborhood.” Grace continues to help out at her sister’s shop, which is where I caught up with her for a MotherSister Minute.

OPENED:  January 8.

WHY FORT GREENE/CLINTON HILL:  My sister has been in the neighborhood for over 3 years. It’s very diverse, and there’s a lot of growth here. I saw the opportunity to be part of that.

MOST POPULAR CLASS:  Belly dancing. We have mother-daughter combos coming in.

MIKE’S COFFEE SHOP OR PRATT COFFEE SHOP:  I usually go to John’s, on the corner of Hall [and Myrtle]. But of those two, I prefer Pratt.

ADVICE OR TIPS ABOUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Look out for all the improvements thanks to MARP. Myrtle Avenue will be a beautiful place — aside from the large buildings that upset some people [laughs].

Move With Grace Studio is at 469 Myrtle Avenue between Washington Avenue and Hall Street (718/230-0013). Check the website for the class schedule.

During my afternoon constitutional with The Scamp today, I discovered that Prospect Drugs has made a cosmetic improvement:

I was reminded of Gothamist’s interview with Adrian Tomine, in which he proposed that businesses be screened for aesthetic appeal. “It kills me the way so many of these new restaurants and shops go for the cheapest, ugliest kind of exterior design…especially in Brooklyn.” To that I would add (while we’re playing “If I ruled the world…”) a requirement for older businesses to upgrade the unattractive, cluttered, and/or misspelled signage they may have started with and never replaced.

The new look at Prospect isn’t fully integrated with their existing aesthetic, but you gotta appreciate the initial effort to distinguish it from the pack of neighborhood pharmacies. I wonder if one of the community councils could recruit some graphic and industrial design students from Pratt to generate new ideas for existing signage and storefronts around the neighborhood?

Forgotten NY tracks old-school signage, including the beloved “French Garment Cleaners” sign on Lafayette Avenue (the space now hosts Stuart & Wright). Interesting article on road sign design here.