COURIER LIFE, AUGUST 6-12, 2021 27
OUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE BOROUGH OF KINGS
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A splash of color arrived at the Vanderbilt
Avenue Open Street in Prospect
Heights over the weekend, thanks to a
new mural gracing the boulevard that
has gone car-free on weekends during
the pandemic.
The public painting “Carpet Collage”
beautifi es one block of the
road’s median, between Bergen and
Dean streets, and the artist hopes the
artwork will make the street more
homely.
“I really wanted to make it feel like
a living room by collaging these different
carpets together,” said Cara
Lynch. “Especially over the last year
where we’ve all been taking advantage
of these spaces.”
The patterns draw inspiration from
different cultures, ranging from the
American Southwest to European designs,
in an aim to represent New York
City’s diversity, according to Lynch.
The painter and a group of helpers
worked on the piece for 12 hours on Saturday,
July 31, before adding some fi nishing
touch-ups for four more hours
the next day.
The Ridgewood-based creative was
commissioned by the Department of
Transportation for the work as part
of the agency’s so-called Asphalt Art
Activations, where city offi cials hire
artists to paint large-scale murals to
spruce up pedestrianized spaces.
Lynch has done a range of public
pieces before, including a mural in
Virginia Park, the Bronx, and a set of
glass panels at the Ditmas Avenue F
train station in Brooklyn.
Vanderbilt Avenue has been among
the most successful and popular Open
Streets since Mayor Bill de Blasio
launched the volunteer-run program
during the fi rst wave of the pandemic
to close off some roads to car traffi c
and give pent-up New Yorkers more
space to gather safely.
Six blocks of the two-way boulevard
are closed to cars between Atlantic Avenue
and Park Place on Friday evenings
and from noon-10 pm on Saturdays
and Sundays, and the stretch has
become a buzzing hub for locals and
visitors to eat, drink, and just enjoy
the added outdoor space.
DOT included the avenue in
its Open Boulevards program, which
features more programming, activities,
art installations, and landscaping
than conventional Open Streets.
Walk on the wild side
Vanderbilt Avenue open street gets colorful mural
PAINT THE TOWN: “Carpet Collage” on the
Vanderbilt Avenue medians between Bergen
and Dean Streets. Photos by Shawn Skinner