Bushwick Becoming a Gallery District

While the Armory Show and other Manhattan venues having special exhibits this week are getting a lot of press right now, today the Times looks at how a neighborhood across the East River, Bushwick, is becoming the city’s next hot gallery district. The story makes the claim that as “with SoHo, Chelsea and the Lower East Side before it, Bushwick is shaping up as the city’s next gallery district.” The trend has become particularly pronounced of late: “In the last year, more than a dozen art galleries have opened in the industrial neighborhood, taking over rusty factories, Dominican botanicas and auto-parts stores. Some run on a shoestring and feel more like student exhibitions. But blue-chip names like Luhring Augustine are arriving, too, opening satellite galleries that tap into the area’s bohemian mood.” The story charts the neighborhood’s evolution into a destination for the arts, starting with artists being priced out of Williamsburg, continuing with people moving into the McKibbin lofts and, more recently, increasing gentrification via businesses like health food shops and Roberta’s. The article credits Ted Hovivian, who purchased the warehouse at 56 Bogart Street in 1983, with bringing a critical mass of artists to the neighborhood by renting studio space in the building to artists in recent years; in addition to the other galleries that have opened in the neighborhood, the warehouse itself has nine of them.
Next Stop, Bushwick [NY Times]
Photo by hragv