Harlem Renaissance-era frieze to be restored
BY JESSICA PARKS
A crumbling Harlem Renaissance
era sculpture at
Crown Heights’ Kingsborough
Houses is getting a
much-needed facelift following
decades of neglect.
“The artwork is falling
apart,” said Larry Weeks,
Fulton Art Fair treasurer
and neighbor of the Kingsborough
Houses. “I would walk
through there and I would
see it and say this piece needs
some tender loving care.”
Richmond Barthé — a gay,
Black sculpturist prominent
in the city’s art revival era
— built the frieze, titled “Exodus
and Dance,” on commission
for an amphitheater that
was never built at the Harlem
River Houses, a mostly-Black
housing complex at the time.
Instead, the artwork traveled
across the East River to
the Kingsborough Houses,
which had a mostly-white
population, in 1941.
The sculpted-stone mural
can now be seen at the New
York City Housing Authority
complex, although it exists in
a state of disrepair — suffering
from cracks due to rainwater
and a bad patchwork
job, according to one of the
project’s advocates.
“The work of cast stone
was literally cracked and
crumbling and you could put
a fi nger through sections of
it,” said Michelle Bogart, an
author and art history professor.
COURIER LIFE, F 30 EBRUARY 19-25, 2021
“The immediate approaches
to it are crumbling
too… there was patching
that had been done but very
badly.”
The restoration is a result
of the combined effort of
a number of people and organizations
— which is said
to have begun in 2018, when
Bogart drew attention to the
artwork’s dilapidated state on
Twitter, and when the Weeksville
Heritage Center and Fulton
Art Fair began reaching
out to their councilmember.
“So I was just simply trying
to draw awareness to the
work, so I started tagging
First Lady Chirlane McCray
and Councilmember Alicka
Ampry-Samuels,” Bogart
said. “And it was on that basis
that some people saw it.”
Their pleas eventually
reached the right people, and
moves were made to preserve
Barthé’s largest work of art
— in a project costing a whopping
$1.8 million.
“NYCHA continues to
move forward with the inhouse
work on the Barthé
frieze,” said a NYCHA
spokeswoman. “In 2018, the
Public Design Commission,
NYCHA, and Speaker Corey
Johnson’s staff met to discuss
the conservation of this work,
and The Speaker allocated
$1.8 million for the work to be
done.”
To restore the piece, conservators
will remove the 16
panels comprising the 80-foot
long sculpture from the site
for restoration and build a
new supporting wall to better
insulate the frieze from the
weather.
Weeks said he looks forward
to the frieze serving
as a focal point in the community
and plans for it to be
once again used as a gathering
place for the residents of
Kingsborough Houses.
“They used to have activities
in front of the frieze,
like movie night,” he said.
“So at some point I think we
can get back to having those
kind of community event. A
place where the community
“Exodus and Dance” by Richmond Barthé depicts African-American fi gures
engaged in collective dance. Photo by Michele H. Bogart
can gather and also celebrate
the artist, and artists in general.”
The project, slated to begin
in August, is projected to take
two years but Weeks said that
doesn’t mean the space will
be void of art as he intends to
beautify the area with paintings
and other artwork in the
meantime.
“What I am planning on
doing is once they start the
construction, and they put up
some sort of barrier,” he said,
“to have it decorated with artwork,
either banners or painting
on plywood, just to have
something that adds to the
community.”
Council Speaker Corey
Johnson, who advocated for
the council funding, said he
looks forward to seeing Barthé’s
masterpiece restored to
its former glory.
“This 80-foot-long sculpture
has been part of the community
for the past eight decades
and I am proud that we
were able to allocate funds
to conserve this historic artwork,”
the head of the council
said in a statement to Brooklyn
Paper. “I can’t wait to see
Richmond Barthé’s frieze
when it is restored to its original
splendor.”
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Park Slope’s Brooklyn Arts
Exchange is seeking submissions
for a crowd-sourced book
of recipes to be published at
the performing arts space’s 30-
year anniversary next month.
“In this time of COVID,
we’re spending so much time
cooking for our families, so
it seemed like a nice way to
bring in the multiple voices
and communities,” said the
Exchange’s executive director
Kara Gilmour.
The head of the Fifth Avenue
venue near Eighth Street
encouraged locals to get creative
by sending in recipes for
beloved meals or other nonfood
instructions — such as
how to have a good talk or a
guide to a dance routine, according
to Gilmour.
In addition to text-based
submissions, aspiring grub
maestros can also send in
video or audio fi les, which will
be published on BAX’s website,
along with those written
recipes that didn’t make it
into print.
The initiative was inspired
by written collections like “The
Artists’ and Writers’ Cookbook,”
and video montages like
of the theater recipes published
by the Westtown Quaker school
in Pennsylvania.
Gilmour, who joined the organization
in July, said BAX
is eager to hear people’s stories
behind the recipes and
their connection to the arts
haven since its founding by
her predecessor Marya Warshaw
in 1991.
“That’s the magic, particularly
in these times when
we’ve been spending so much
time in our kitchens and our
living rooms dancing,” said
Gilmour. “The magic of an anniversary
is time to refl ect on
all the years that got you here,
but also the future.”
The organization has already
received some recipes
and art submissions, including
a diptych print showing
the view from BAX’s roof.
Like many institutions,
BAX had to pivot its classes
and shows to digital programming
due to the coronavirus,
while still offering its spaces
for rent, albeit with more careful
pandemic protocols like
smaller groups for bookings.
BAX will release the community
recipe book at their
virtual blowout for the organization’s
big 3-0 on March 30,
accompanied by online performances.
Contributors will get a
complimentary copy and all
sale proceeds will go toward
sustaining the organization’s
programming.
To fi nd out more about submitting
your recipe by Feb. 22,
visit www.bit.ly/baxrecipecall.
Figures of the past
BAX crowdsources a recipe book to
fundraise for 30-year anniversary
BROOKLYN
Let’s get cooking
BAX hosts a number of classes such as Tumbling, a movement and modern
dance class as seen here in a shot from 2018. Stomping Ground
/baxrecipecall
/baxrecipecall