I took the Verrazano Bridge to Staten Island and returned on the ferry.
In between I enjoyed hours and hours at Art By the Ferry in the St. George neighborhood, drinking beer, listening to the music of Pupa Santiago and his incredible band and Queen Tipsy, a bluesy rock singer named Phyllis. I also saw rooms and rooms of art including a devastating installation of photographs taken in Iraq, as well as the work of master printmakers and painters. Brooklyn photographer Tom Martinez’s photographs of a hawks were also a high point. Martinez, the pastor of the All Souls Bethlehem Church in Kensington, Brooklyn, frequently shows his remarkable photographs as part of his church services. “I feel compelled to witness the beauty of creation. In that spirit, I’ve photographed the hawks who were recently relocated from Prospect Park to Greenwood Cemetery,” he writes.
Much of the artwork was located at 120 Stuyvesant Place,where there were 18 group exhibitions including: “Battlespace;” “Bunkin, Tango, Arcia, Grabel;” “The Collagraph Circle;” “Alan, Joanne, Barbara, and Janine;” “Wagner Sculpture Group;” “Creative Photographers’ Guild;” “Unique Art;” “DMBZ Group;” “Bogaert Group;” “ArtLab;” “Staten Island Camera Club;” “ArtLab Printmakers;” “Photographers Group;” “Wagner People;” “McCormack Family;” “Snug Harbor Studio Artists,” “Unaffiliated Group;” and “Independent Artist.”
Indeed, Staten Island, which has its own Philharmonic Orchestra, ballet, and a host of cultural institutions, is full of the arts. My reading at the St. George Library was great fun. I mostly read from my Smartmom column and talked a little bit about blogging.
Credit goes to Joyce Goldstein, who with the help of her husband Ira and a group called, Staten Island Creative Community organized this ambitious and well-organized three-day community arts event. As anyone who has ever organized a special event knows, it takes a very determined, creative, and dedicated group to put on an event of this magnitude. Props to all who were involved.
Clearly, Joyce is the unofficial mayor of Staten Island with a deep and abiding love for the arts and people of her borough. Did you know that artist Romare Bearden and his wife, Nanette, a choreographer were residents of the island?
Joyce told me.
“The ride on the ferry at night is magical,” she told us as she and Ira drove me and another Broolynite to the ferry. “The view of the city; it’s like Oz,” she said with unflappable enthusiasm and awe.
She described the plethora of artists on the island. “There’s a lot of talent here. I really think it’s going to be the next Williamsburg,” she told us.
“Look, that’s going to be the new lighthouse museum in that space near the ferry,” she pointed out the car window at what will soon be the new National Lighthouse Museum.
Saturday, the third and final day of Art By The Ferry, was a gorgeous blue sky day to roam around the St. George section, inhale views of the Hudson River and Manhattan, and take in the mixed-bag architectural landscape that is Staten Island.
Talk of doing it next year was in the air as were ideas about how to get more tourists—and people from the other boroughs—who ride the ferry to get off the ferry in Staten Island and enjoy some of the bounty that the borough has to offer. The ferry ride is one of the most popular tourist attractions in New York City.
The St. George Ferry Terminal is no longer the drab, depressing place it was when I last rode the ferry too many years ago. Completed in 2005, it has been transformed into welcoming space with large windows, views of the harbor and high ceilings to provide a well lit, open and inviting environment.
It was a surprise to see that there are two 8-foot tall, 1,600-gallon fish tanks in the waiting area of the terminal. The tanks, which were introduced in February 2008, each hold 200 tropical fish and will be maintained by the Staten Island Zoo. Watching the fish is a great way to while away a wait for the ferry.
The ferry ride is free of charge and lasts about 25 minutes. It may be one of the greatest shows in tow. Wind in your face, the water below, subway style drummers banging sheet rock pails, the Statue of Lady passing by, Manhattan, like Oz, in the distance, a ride on the ferry is the quintessential New York experience recapitulating the immigrant’s arrival experience again and again.
Thanks so much for reading at Art by the Ferry. You were great! I especially loved the part where you said your husband was your muse. My husband can be difficult, too (can’t they all!!), and I’ve already found it helpful to try to think of him as a source of inspiration rather then a source of irritation.
I live in the South Slope, so I read Smart Mom all the time and Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn quite often, but I work in Staten Island. Thanks for doing a little cross-cultural exchange and covering SI! It’s a great, diverse borough that has a lot of character. It’s too bad that it is often overlooked, because it’s definitely a unique island.