12/15/14

By Francesca Carter

The HBO series, Show Me A Hero, has been re-creating the backdrop of the 1980 segregation case by spray-painting different buildings in downtown Yonkers. When asked about this implementation of spray paint on Yonkers buildings, something the city has worked hard to diminish, Wilson Kimball, The Yonkers Commissioner of planning and Economic development said: “I think it’s kind of a great success story for Yonkers, that this stuff doesn’t exist and that they have to create it. It’s not our reality anymore; our reality is a clean, beautiful environment with art installations and a daylighted river and a population that is moving forward and not going backwards.”

And if you have taken a stroll recently through downtown Yonkers, especially during summer, you will have seen a wide assortment of art – from painted trashcans, to mural paintings on the side of buildings, sculptures, knitted fish and bike racks, mosaic eels, and open mike nights. And that’s just the beginning.

Yonkers, in the past couple of years or so, has been flourishing in terms of the amount of art popping up all over the downtown area. With the help of places like the Blue Door art gallery, the Hudson River Museum, YOHO artists, as well as other artists, community members and organizations, Yonkers seems to be attempting to change it’s image.

“I would love for Yonkers to start centralizing a lot of what we do in the arts,” says Phylisha Villanueva from the Blue Door art gallery, “and I think it’s going to get there. I have a hope that Yonkers is going to turn into one of the artiest cities there is.” And if you stand on the bridge at Van Der Donk Park, in the newly daylighted section of Yonkers, it’s hard not to agree with Kimball’s statement.  Yonkers has come a long way since the 1980’s when Yonkers was more well known for its racial tension, politics, and crime than its art.

Robert Rockers, a real estate investor in urban centers and a resident of downtown Yonkers, first came to Yonkers in 1997.  “The first time I made an announcement to my suburban friends on Long Island and I said ‘Guys, I bought a building in Yonkers - downtown Yonkers,’ one of my buddies turned to me and said ‘Bobby are you kidding me? People don't move to Yonkers they move from Yonkers. What are you going there for?’ And that’s what it was,” Rockers explained.

Yonkers has come along way since the days that the HBO show, Show Me a Hero, is representing.  Yonkers may even be on its way to being “put on the map” as another Brooklyn. The arts seem to be leading the way into the renovation of Yonkers, and, in some ways, may even be saving Yonkers from its past.

Yonkers might still be fighting to be “put on the map” as another Brooklyn, but is Art saving the city, is it helping it’s residents fight to keep their past at bay as it knocks on their doors with the takeoff of the HBO show, Show me a Hero? Or is the story more complicated?

Art isn’t the only thing popping up all over Yonkers.  Artists have been moving been popping up in downtown Yonkers as well, and they are being welcomed with open arms by the Yonkers City Government.  According to Wilson, under Mayor Spano’s leadership, they are “leveraging everyone’s expertise in order to send the message that we are focused and welcoming to the arts.” Wilson continued by saying:  “I think that that’s one of the nice things about Mayor Spano -- he wants to include as many people, as many groups, as many voices as he can so that it’s like a dialogue. When people start talking about art, in whatever context, whether its sculpture or murals or performing arts, it sheds a light on Yonkers that people haven't looked at before.”

Mayor Spano seems to be working hard to create the next Brooklyn or Chelsea.  But at what cost? Brooklyn and Chelsea are “perfect” models of gentrification, and as history professor Julia Foulkes of the New School states: “The arts are being co-opted for economic development.”

Foulkes continues by claiming that in the past ten years or so, places like Williamsburg have utilized what they call “creative economy,” meaning city governments have been using the arts to help gentrify places like Chelsea and Brooklyn.  Now it seems Yonkers is hoping to use art in the same way. But what does this mean for the artists who are moving to Yonkers for affordable rent, or for the downtown Yonkers community?  Who is really benefiting from this “creative” transformation of downtown Yonkers?

The Blue Door Gallery is an organization that has done a lot to transform art in Yonkers. The Gallery is an offshoot of The Blue Door Art Center, which was created by the Art Association, and according to Phylisha Villanueva, “The art association is in charge of a lot of the sculptures you’ll see in Yonkers. There are sculptures on the pier; there are a few sculptures in front of City Hall, and I think there is one by the Court House. Also there are some garbage cans that are painted very beautifully in downtown Yonkers, and those are also a Blue Door Art Association project.”

In essence, The Blue Door Art Gallery is a project of the Art Association. And the Gallery produces numerous programs throughout the year, such as monthly film screenings, summer workshops for children, and writing classes for adults. According to Villanueva, “From November to December, Blue Door Gallery turns into a boutique. Normally during the year, our artwork sells for thousands of dollars.  But, during this small two-month period, our work is from three dollars to three hundred dollars – encouraging our community to be part of this project.  Whether you make cards or jewelry, this is your time to submit to our show and let us accept you so you can fully be part of this gallery. So now members of our community can come inside and see and afford things.”

Phylisha Villanueva, who is the advisor to the new outreach and program coordinator, explained that,  “Originally, the Gallery was only about selling the art….When I came in there, I was taking a look at the mission statement and at my community, and part of Blue Door’s mission is to serve the community that may not know about art and education.”

Villanueva is a spoken word artist and decided to use her art form to bridge the gap between the community and the Gallery. “I came in as a spoken word artist so I already knew the power of my words and the power of my art. I started bringing poetry into the place. What I started was an open mike, which involves everyone in the community being apart of everyone’s art with their words.” Open mike has been occurring regularly since its implementation in 2009, but recently, another initiative called Pop Up Open Mike started through the Blue Door Gallery.

As part of Blue Door’s Hispanic initiative, they tried to do a bilingual open mike. According to Villanueva: “We realized that there were a lot of Hispanics that are in our community in downtown Yonkers and Main Street and New Main Street.  And we felt like we would be only half a community if we weren't targeting these people and letting them know that this gallery is for them.  So we came up with a bilingual open mike. We put flyers in all these neighbors where all these Hispanics actually perform within their own communities. It didn’t work. I don't know if it was just not the space. Even though we were opening our doors to Hispanic bilingual performers they may not have felt comfortable. So, what we decided to do was bring the open mike to them.”

Villanueva and Blue Door decided to hold their “pop-up open mike” in front of a mural painted by artist Marco Barrios (also known as Emilio). The mural is located on the corner of Harriet Street, New Main street and off of South Broadway. According to Villanueva, “Emilio took it upon himself to ask the owner of that wall - which actually was a Mexican restaurant - he made arrangements with her and he got the okay. 

“So he outlined the whole mural, and then invited young kids, young adults, and anyone who was interested from the community, to help him paint it. The theme is ‘Mother Earth.’  It’s very tribal and very South American; and you can see the culture. Everyday he was out there, kids asked when would he be there next. He made arrangements with his community to paint this mural together.  That part right there is what builds a community.”

“We just invite the community to paint - come paint want to paint - that’s the way the community got to come in,” Emilio explained, “I want them to know where there roots are from, that’s why I do that type of mural there.”

The mural is called El Jaguar, and according to Villanueva, during the pop-up open mike night, “we have a mike and speakers set up in front of the mural. And we do open mike outside. And it is beautiful. Because you see the windows open up from the community looking outside and they come out and cars pull over and they sit on the roof of the car watching this. And it's great! It’s beautiful! It is an amazing experience. They (the community) love it.” 

Villanueva and the Blue Door hope to expand the pop-up open mike program. According to Villanueva, “The city of Yonkers just put out a big project, a mural project. Blue door and I are hoping to partner up with the committee that does the murals so that way in front of every mural in Yonkers once a month we can do open mikes in front of these murals. So we are not really targeting bilingual communities; we are just targeting any community that owns a mural. So we can celebrate the mural. So we can understand that art is part of our culture and the importance of it. And it’s not far from you and it’s something anyone can get into at any age, no matter what language you speak.”

According to Villanueva, the Yonkers Downtown Waterfront Improvement District  (B.I.D.) has been working to beautify Yonkers.  It was their idea to implement the mural project. The  Waterfront Improvement District’s executive director, Dan Lipka explained the organization’s involvement with the arts movement in Yonkers: “We really focus on the downtown area; and we have been a strong proponent of having more art in store fronts, in streets, on buildings, on having more artists engaged in the community. Art really does change culture in a community and it really goes toward our own beautification efforts. The different things that we have done include working with the city to get murals put up. We've recently had three murals put up on vacant storefronts.”

When asked if the murals that were being implemented throughout Yonkers were representing the different cultures in Yonkers, Villanueva responded, “I am not sure. But I really do not think that any of the artists really knew about the community before they started painting on the walls, and I think that should definitely be a big factor in any other murals that go up from now on.”

“There are a lot of artists that go out and do public art and they may never have a conversation with community members,” Yonkers artist, Haifa Bint-Kadi, explained.  “This happens all the time, and at it’s core, I believe that that is wrong. Not everybody believes that, but I believe that.   I believe that anything that happens in a community should happen through a processes of collaboration.”

Haifa Bint-Kadi owns Art and Soul Studio (her personal studio where she also provides art classes to the community).  She is also the curator at the Yonkers River Front Library, and is the director of CEDA. It is safe to safe that Haifa Bint-Kadi is a well known and influential artist and community member in Yonkers.  Everyone in the art world seems to know her and has nothing but praise for her and her art projects.

Bint-Kadi describes herself as a public artist and art teacher. When asked why art was important in communities, Bint-Kadi said, “There are lots of reasons that art is important.  But in terms of civic engagement, art isn't just an experience, it’s really a vehicle for promoting dialogue, and it helps citizens communicate what they need from the community - from the world.  I really try and promote community enrichment by connecting communities with the art they do.”

While she believes in the power of art in communities, Bint-Kadi does not believe that art is the reason for the changes happening in Yonkers.  When asked about it, she explained:  “Well, I wouldn't use the term ‘through the arts.’  I mean, Yonkers is undergoing rapid development and gentrification, so I would say that.  I wouldn't attribute that to art. I would attribute it to the water front property.”

Bint-Kadi describes her artistic practice as “resurrection history.” Whenever she creates a new piece of public art she always tries to excavate and find out the history of the space. She spends a lot of time talking to people who have handled that space. “I make sure that the art piece that I do connects to the history of the space.  Not just the history that is current, but the history that existed before that space was there and that is still talking to people. It may change what your vision of what was, and that’s okay.”

While she is a huge advocate of community art and engagement, Bint-Kadi, through her position as curator for Yonkers River Front Library, has endured some upheaval from the community on her recent choices for the gallery. Through her connection with internationally renowned artist friends, Bint-Kadi decided to bring their art to the gallery instead of displaying art from the community, as has usually been done in the past.  Bint-Kadi explained her reasons: “I am just aware that many of our students and family members never go into the city to visit museums, and children in the city of Yonkers no longer have field trips. They have very limited access to the major art institutions that we have in the city. My mission for the gallery is to bring major artists here, and to provide opportunities for the community to experience art that they otherwise would not get to experience.”

According to Bint-Kadi, these large exhibits will not only bring this artistic education per se to the Yonkers community, but it will also bring curators who will go to local artist’s studios. Their last show, which just closed, was called Journeys by Romero Librado, and brought in over 150 people on opening night, as well as reporters from the NY Post and Times. The next exhibit will feature braiding throughout Africa, the Caribbean and NYC. “There are intentionally acclaimed braiders. We will be bringing a show that is all about the braiding tradition,” Bint-Kadi explained.

When not spending time on curating for the Yonkers Riverfront Library or at her studio, she is working in her role as director of CEDA - Community Engagement of the Arts, which is an organization that was created through Groundwork Hudson Valley. According to Bint-Kadi, CEDA was created three years ago, “At CEDA we use community art as a model and we take a grass roots approach to community needs of social justice through art.”

While walking on the daylighted section in Yonkers, you may have noticed a mosaic right beneath your feet. The large mosaic tells the story of the eels that live in the Hudson River. The project was undertaken by CEDA and Bint-Kadi. Bint-Kadi worked with seven high school students from three different schools, researching how they could communicate and engage the community through an art piece that would tell the story of the eel.  “Everything that is in the pavement is an indigenous species or plant to the Saw Mill River, so that part was really to engage children… it acts as a way for the community to engage with the art.”

Another project of CEDA and Bint-Kadi is a program called Street Art Youth Core (SAYC). According to Bint-Kadi, “This is a group of teenagers from underserved communities who are really interested in the arts. This group of teenagers is being trained in mural making and what they will be able to do is to offer (their skills) to local non-profits like family clinics and the homeless shelter and local day cares. Murals will help brighten those spaces for community members who have to spend long amounts of time there.” Bink Kadi went on to explain that places such as the Joseph Health Clinic and Yonkers Family Health Clinic “are both places where people have to wait long amounts of time to receive their services and the waiting rooms are very dim and have no art. And when you have murals, people will have a better experience when they have to stay there all day.”

Teens from high schools all over Yonkers are participating in this program. According to Bint-Kadi, “The other really exciting thing about this group of youths is that we are working with the detectives from the anti-graffiti task force, teaching the youth the difference between tagging and graffiti and street art. They are learning how gang activity is related to tagging and graffiti and how dangerous it can be.  It’s kind of a gateway - tagging and graffiti art - a gateway to other forms of crime.” These teenagers will then teach what they learn in the program to younger students. It is certainly a long way from the 1980’s graffiti-filled Yonkers that HBO has been working hard to recreate.

The Hudson River Museum did its own version of “graffiti” this summer through an art form called “Yarn Bombing.” If you were wondering this summer about the origins of the knitted art on the bicycle racks, the fish in the fence in the daylighted park, or the knitted American Flag on the 4th of July was from, you now have your answer. Katie Henry, who works in the education department at the Hudson River Museum, was the instigator of the project.  “I had seen some Yarn bombing done other places, where it’s basically graffiti but its using yarn. What you do is you knit it in the stand and then you kind of like sew up the side.  It’s kind of like putting a sweater on something. People do it to parking meters,” Henry explained.

The Hudson River Museum is an art and science museum. Every weekend they hold art and science projects for families. They do programs for older adults called “Arts in the Afternoon.”  They also have an environmental teaching gallery and a planetarium. They have many more programs and exhibitions throughout the year, but most of it takes place inside the museum, which is located at Warburton Ave. Its location is not ideal for those who do not have easy access to transportation.  This is why the idea of “Yarn Bombing” was a great way for them to showcase to Yonkers what they are doing at the museum.

According to Katie Henry, this past summer, they had an artist exhibit from Seattle - Mandy Greer, who is a fiber artist and does a lot of crocheting in her work. They wanted to create an engaging program to go along with Greer’s exhibition (something they often do with each exhibition), so they decided to go with “Yarn Bombing.”

Henry explained, “We met a local artist named Sarah Divi who lives in Yonkers, and she has worked in fiber arts as well. I said to her, ‘You know we always have a teaching artist for changing exhibits and they come in and we work with them and together we create an art project that we do with the public.’ So I asked her, ‘Do you want to come in and do all of these different things?’ and she was like, ‘Yeah absolutely.’"

“It was amazing. I wanted to make one for so long, and when the museum contacted me and asked if it was possible, I jumped right in. It was so much fun to do,” Sarah Divi explained. Divi had her friends, Yonkers veterans, some residents in Yonkers, and many people from the greater part of Westchester, help her knit and crochet all the squares and extra scarves that were needed for the project.

On they day they implemented the project, Divi explains, “People were stopping us as we were working to ask what we were doing, thank us, talk about the colors, mention what it made them think of.  The bike rack across from the Amtrak station was the biggest piece. I knit most of that myself. It was about 6 feet long. They were basically very long scarves. 3-4 hours each to knit. I did a rainbow - each ring was a color of the rainbow.”

Also that day they wove an American flag into the walk-on bridge over the river. “The Mayor of Yonkers’ office came out and helped us. The city planning office came out and helped us install, as well as directors from the museum. It was incredible to get that amount of feedback, not just from the community, but from the Mayor’s office, and that level of support from the directors of the museum who were so on board with this project that they would come out in the very hot sun.”

“Yes, I actually went down there and ‘yarn bombed’ the bridge across the saw mill, along with other people from my office and other members of the Hudson river museum staff,” Wilson Kimball explained, “We Liked the yarn bombing so much that we asked them to extend the period that they were doing it.”

“At the second stage, a month later,” Henry explained, “we added fish that were basically  ‘grammy’ squares… and we put a button for an eye to make them look like fish.  We ended up doing about 50 fish, and we attached them to the fences going around the park.”

“Simple squares—six-inch squares that everyone could knit one - or 20 - we had some very enthusiastic knitters,” Divi added.

 “When I went back on subsequent days to either add more or I went back to fix it or mend it, I had several people stop me to make sure I wasn't taking it down, they wanted to make sure it was staying up. “They said, ‘Oh you’re the one responsible for doing this,’ and then they would start telling me how much they loved it. Only one lady called us f*%@& weirdo’s.”

When asked how she feels art affects the community, Divi responded by saying: “As far as public art, it makes people stop and look at the space around them and appreciate it more. They can walk past a lamp post 50 times and all of the sudden, when there is something bright and colorful there, they will be like, ‘Oh there is something there.’ It usually shows that someone notices - someone cares in that community enough to brighten up your space. Not always, there are very different feelings about graffiti and sometimes street art falls into that category—different quality levels of graffiti which is a whole other topic.

According to Damm Nice, another artist, who has created murals in downtown Yonkers, the difference between street art and graffiti is that: “Graffiti defaces -makes the neighborhood bad, while street art takes the sour spot of the neighborhood and turns it into stylized art, it makes it appealing. And inviting.”

Nice, like Haifa Bint-Kadi, is also working with the police department to understand the difference between graffiti and street art.  “I am working with Ken Davis who is the head guy at the police department for gangs and graffiti – identifying how to read it and what the gang language means. I want to bring at-risk kids together and help them find pride in themselves and their neighborhood,” Nice explained.

Damm Nice is a tattoo artist and part of the YOHO artist studios, a place where artists can rent studio space.  Every so often, they open their doors so the public can come and see their artwork. Damm Nice has his own tattoo and fine art studio, Called Dame Nice, on 540 Nepperhan Ave. 

Nice explained, “ I get to bring the ancient art of tattoos into this culture.  It has it’s stigma… but I shed light on the artistic aspect of tattooing.” When asked what he likes most about the art form, he replied: “The people.  How they change the way they perceive themselves. And how the world around them perceives them. It is a very empowering thing.  They are renewed.  I get a lot of people asking for scar masking -like skin issues, burns and making them beautiful.  A woman who went through multiple surgeries and spent thousands of dollars to correct scars, decided to have a tattoos done.  She then raved about me and brought in her granddaughter.”  

Nice created a mural, which was part of the Yonkers downtown B.I.D’s work in to beautify Yonkers, at 184-18 South Broadway at an old gas station. Nice explained, “I wanted to put something that resonated to the community.   I wanted to do something in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe – which embodied the Aztecs vision of Mother Earth.  In order to avoid persecution, the natives had to adopt the new Christian Catholic way.  In doing so, they embedded the spirit of Mother Earth into the Virgin of Guadalupe. The feminine symbol screams of unity, peace and togetherness. Like the Statue of Liberty. Nobody hates that.  This is something we all have in common.  She has wings like she’s our savior.  And there are motivational words in Filipino, Thai, Portuguese, Korean, Hebrew, which make up the population of Yonkers.  Also, adjacent to that, is the earth and a woman coming out of the earth like a tree.”

When asked about the importance of art in Yonkers, Nice replied with a quote from John Stoddard, “’Art picks up where nature leaves off.’”  Nice went on to say, “Art is vital in Yonkers.  It inspires the community - aids in the development of culture - to take pride in themselves and the community and nurturing our youth.  Kids nowadays are not outside playing, but are indoors on computers, etc.  Art in public spaces is vital for youth - for their mind and exploration.”

And when asked to comment on the changes happening in Yonkers the last few years, Nice replied, ” Neighborhoods are becoming gentrified. Art creates a culture where people will come – artists will come to create.  You have a change of the demographics of the community.  Artists have a way to change the landscape of the neighborhood.  It benefits everyone but also real estate.   Community art shouldn’t be an instrument to create and divide… but is for everyone to benefit.”

When asked how art has affected the rest of Yonkers, Dan Lipka (B.I.D) said, “It’s been a pretty steady processes in the downtown in terms of development.  And along with art there are other beautification efforts. For example, we do a lot of landscaping.  The city invested to turn a parking lot into a beautiful open river park.  And all that has really changed the entire atmosphere of the down town from an area that was very desolate, without that much going on,  into something that is more thriving. More people are looking to live down here, and more businesses and more developers are interested in Yonkers.” Lipka continued by discussing the rises in real estate, “The prices have gone up because the quality of the newer buildings are much higher then anything that has been down here before. The new developers also wanted to see this positive change in the culture and the landscape of downtown Yonkers - art is a great way of doing that.”

Robert Beaugard, an Urban Development Professor at Cornell University, explained how art is tied to gentrification: “[When you have] community-based culture kind of activities - where you have a lot of views of the cliché of the struggling artist trying to make it in the world of ballet, jazz, sculpting, web design and doing something at the community level which hasn't quite made it to the Lincoln center - the story then is about gentrification.  It’s about these people who are young and early in their career and they want to be in the city but they can't afford the rents, particularly in terms of New York.  They can’t afford to live in Manhattan, so they move to Williamsburg, Dumbo, other places in the city - the outer burrows outside of Manhattan; and they look for inexpensive housing or studio space. 

Adam Shultz, is one of those artists who has moved to Yonkers for affordable housing. Shultz, who is primarily a painter, but also does sculpture and installations, is also part of the YOHO artists studios and moved to Yonkers in 2009.  He moved from the Riverdale section of the Bronx, and mainly because of affordable rent.  Shultz isn’t the only one moving to Yonkers for affordable rent, as Bob Walters, who is on the committee of Yonkers Arts, explains. “People can't afford to live in Brooklyn or Queens, so they will be chased up here. And we will be here to welcome them because we will have an artist community already in place.”

Phylisha Villanueva also speaks to this phenomenon of artist migration to Yonkers. “From working at Blue Door - a lot of artist come and say ‘Hi, I’m an artist.  I’m new to the area.’ I've gotten that I don’t know how many times.  When I ask why did they choose Yonkers, they say that Williamsburg is pushing them out.  Williamsburg is beginning to get very expensive and a lot of artists are looking for a place close enough to the city, close enough to where all the passions are, but also a place that supports them as artists.”

According to Wilson Kimball, “There are new people like Mia Lyn, Daniel Wolf and Dave Hammons moving here because they get the vibe that we are welcoming - open to them and to their sensibility, and we are wiling to promote them, as long as everyone is willing to promote Yonkers, which is really the message of the Mayor. Yonkers is a hidden gem, four and half-miles of waterfront on the Hudson river, beautiful college campus, and wonderful people.  People need to open their eyes and sort of find Yonkers.”

And artists like Adam Shultz are finding Yonkers. According to Shultz he has lived all over New York: “I’ve been in Chelsea, East Village, all over East Side; had a studio in Dumbo, I’ve lived in Williamsburg - so I’ve kind of been around these artists quarters creative environments; and there is something about Yonkers right now that has a viable energy to it.”

When asked about this phenomenon of artist migration to Yonkers, Shutz responded by saying: “You know the phrase ‘It starts with the arts?’ Artists always move towards affordable, and what that often means are economically oppressed communities are prime for affordable workspace for the artist. There is a period of transition where the art really flies in most communities; and it feels like right now, that’s what the art means in Yonkers. I hate to say it, but next move would be the economic investment within the community. That’s where it becomes more viable for other business to come into it.  Once that activity begins, then it builds during that transition period. In NYC there is a lot of concern about the artist not being able to afford NYC anymore.  They call the artists ‘creative capital’ because they understand that arts and culture go hand in hand with the quality of living.”

The City of Yonkers also sees artists as creative capital, as Wilson Kimball explains.  We see the arts, too, as an economic driver.  It’s not just that they’re aesthetically pleasing, or that artistic people tend to live there - actually be employed in the arts or pursue their career in the arts; but they are actually able to earn a living and contribute back to society and employ other people through the arts.  And we find that a great economic driver for the city.”

According to professor Julia Foulkes “A more recent trend, [the past 20 to 30 years] artists are seen as precursors to a kind of life style that people want to mimic as a kind of model.  Bankers want to live in lofts; they want to have the coffee shops; they want to go by walls that are graffitied. All of the kind of elements of what it means to be a hip, urbanite, are attached to artists now in a way that they weren't, even 50 years ago. Artists themselves are being pushed to the edges and have a hard time holding on to neighborhoods that they tried to find a home in.”

But if this trend is happening not just in New York, but all over the U.S, where artists move to a “run-down” city for affordable rent, and then, from their art, turn it into a hip place for such people as bankers and others of financial wealth, and the city then becomes this new hip, artsy, gentrified hotspot on the map, how will Yonkers really stand out?   Also, places like Chelsea and Brooklyn turned into creative economies organically, while in Yonkers it is being more or less forced. The city of Yonkers might be trying to utilize the wealth-attracting benefits of the arts, but are people outside of Yonkers going to buy into it?

And what about the artists? Does this “trend,” mean that artist’s are the godmothers of broken cities - moving form city to city implementing an art culture, which in turn “saves” the city only to be forced out of the city once it is saved because they can no longer afford the rent?   

In answer to this, Shutlz says: “I think its super important for the community leaders to listen very carefully to what’s happened elsewhere and pay attention to what the artists need, and not just the developers and investors, and do what they can do to keep that nucleus together. I think that the reality is at some point space becomes unaffordable for the artist, and that which is good for the community doesn't always align with what is good for the artist. And I don't really worry about it so much – I see it as an inevitable reality that those cycles occur.   And the best that I can do as an artist, is just to try and take advantage of that transition area and do what I can do within myself.  Because if I worry about it, just leads to loss of energy.”

But if artist are eventually forced out because they can’t afford the rent, won’t other long-time community members be forced out as well?  Who is the art in Yonkers really serving?

Emilio pointed out that most of the art popping up in Yonkers is only in downtown and not in the neighborhoods: “We don’t need to have all the art in downtown. We need to have the art in the neighborhoods - because it’s important. If they see a beautiful mural, they will enjoy it; they are going to learn something from the wall, and they are going to be part of the wall.  Art is very powerful because of what it is – it doesn't separate people, it brings people together.”

But is art in Yonkers bringing people together?   Or is it just bringing the “right” people together to benefit only the wealthy few?

There is no question that art is a powerful tool that can shape a community.  But in terms of Yonkers, who and/or what is art really saving? 

December 11, 2014

By Brady Wheeler

                                                       Nick Walker (left), shaking hands with Mayor Spano (right), during his installation of several of his

                                                           world renowned "Vandal" stencils around the downtown area.

No, the artwork you’re beginning to see color a variety of downtown locations are not edgy acts of vandalism—or are they? Over the past few months, the City of Yonkers and its local arts-focused partnerships have been attempting to capture and, at times, censor what recent artwork can and should mean to nearby residents. Fitting under its broader mission to rebrand Yonkers as a younger and hipper haven through Generation Yonkers, its ambitious urban renewal program, the City under Mayor Mike Spano’s administration has been actively seeking to give the urban area a facelift. In line with this overarching vision to change the city’s demographics is Spano’s absolute acceptance of the artwork of Nick Walker, the man who has inspired “vandals” and their “vandalism” since he introduced his style and trademarked “vandal” tag to his hometown of Bristol, England in the early 1980s. His work, leading up to the recent paintings he’s stenciled around the downtown area, has been formed on the premises of a confrontation to the bureaucratic authority that attempts to bottle the domain of private property and ultimately keep it off limits to graffiti artists.  Walker’s work may have begun on the modest streets of Bristol, but has since garnered considerable attention from street art enthusiasts around the world, not to mention, politicians like Spano who are seeking the urban facelift Walker can provide his city.

In a profile written by the Bristol Post back in 2010 on Walker’s upcoming exhibit at the time, the self-identified street artist confides that his work is a completely different, and in one way or another, an elevated breed of graffiti. “You get the people who aren’t able to differentiate between [my] level of street art and the mindless tags of graffiti vandals. To me that’s baffling.” In rejecting the more common, highly illegal and streetwise forms and styles of graffiti artists past while nevertheless co-opting their aesthetic implications, Walker essentially places himself in the realm of privatization. He has affixed a boldly colored target to his back for the Spano team and Community Engagement through the Arts, or CETTA, (an initiative of the nonprofit organization Groundwork Hudson Valley, which commissioned Walker’s series), to track him down and ultimately endorse his trademark “vandal” to be stenciled all over the city.

Let’s be clear: Nick Walker’s series around the city, from purely technical terms, is something worthy of critical acclaim, but it is unjust (and I think Walker would be the first to admit this) to consider his work community-based street art and/or graffiti art in terms of the political space graffiti has attempted to occupy over the years. Despite what CETTA claims on their website, which in clear terms maintains that they are a group “that uses a community arts model and a grassroots approach in using art to address community needs,” this series represents that under the façade of serving the preexisting community, the city and several of its close partners, seek to bring a different kind of person to its urban community and serve them instead.

As much as the city and its affiliates are endorsing and paying for a specific aesthetic to consume the streets of Yonkers, it’s clear that “vandalism,” or at least Nick Walker’s vandalism, is mostly accepted as long as the vandal isn’t part of the community, contributes very little to community dialogue and vandalizes those spaces which governing agents allow them to deface. The series and quite possibly in extension the overarching mission behind Generation Yonkers is bound to fail the existing community not because it was managed poorly but because, in a sense, it was over-managed and done so too cleanly. As fellow stencil artist and England native Banksy suggests, “Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a by-product of making something that means something.” To the southwest Yonkers community the beautifully painted stencils popping up everywhere mean absolutely nothing. We can only hope it means something to the younger, hipper crowd Spano seeks to attract.

                                                     Nick Walker's iconic "Vandal" at work on a Yonkers business shutters along Bashford Street

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By Sachi Shah

Librado “Lee” Romero, who exhibited a curated collection of his work at the Riverfront Public Library through September and October this year, is a part of the YoHo artists community of Yonkers. His show tilted ‘Journey’, features oil painting, watercolors and an ongoing, interactive installation that depicts his experiences throughout the last twenty years.

At a talk Romero gave at the Yonkers Library, he explained he was most creative and free as a child, and so his style of painting is influenced by the forms and figures one typically associates with a child’s artwork. Many of Romero’s contemporaries were in attendance at the discussion, and pointed out the various contributions they had made to Romero’s ongoing installation: several wine crates stacked to the height of approximately fourteen feet, in which found and stored objects were arranged. 

Romero’s artists’ studio sits on the second floor of what used to be the Alexander Smith Mills building on Nepperhan Avenue. The old carpet mill, which has been converted into the YoHo Artists Community has over 80 artists working in its quarters. About YoHo, Romero says in jest, “It’s called ‘the asylum’- it has been best described as eccentric, but we are out and out crazy here!”

As Romero unlocks the door - which bears a sign saying “Waitress Wanted” - to his magnificent studio, he says, “I have the best studio in all of the complex.”  Romero’s studio is large with high ceilings and tall French windows lining the entirety of the wall that overlooks the rest of the YoHo buildings. It is cluttered with artwork from the last twenty years; canvases of all sizes decorate the walls from floor to ceilings. The space is a vivid whirlpool of color – mostly pastels. A guitar lies against an old wooden cabinet upon which is a cluster of paints, brushes, bottles of turpentine and a large, well-used palette; a record player sits inconspicuously in the corner.

Romero opens the window to feed some bread to the pigeons, disclosing that there is one particularly good-looking, sneaky and coy pigeon that always manages to get the most food because she uses her beauty to distract the other male pigeons. He adds that she is quite promiscuous, too.    

Romero who used to be the chief of photography for the New York Times, has always harbored the desire to be a painter. His work has predominantly been inspired by his childhood in Calexico, California - a little town of four thousand people by the California-Mexico border. Romero has also spent some time painting the Catskills, NY and he currently lives in the Bronx. His art is studded with motifs of mountainous terrain, airplanes and Mexican enigmatic traditions.

“You start seeing suggestions. I’m not trying to tell any story, just invite the viewers to use their own imagination. I’m not trying to create any mystery”, Romero explains about his work. He adds, “I don’t have any messages, this is just self-indulgent fabrication of my imagination.” However, to the beholder, Romero’s work paints a vibrant picture of a keen sense of place. He recounts, “I was born in LA, and lived there for 7 years. Then my father moved us to Calexico. I moved to San Francisco then joined the army so that I could travel all over Europe. I went to Long Island and travelled all over the world. I just had to explore Mexico. But I never got tired of New York. There is always something new to see here. Maybe I like moving around so much because when I was growing up, my mother kept moving our rooms around.”

On being asked about the public murals “I think it is marvelous” - “It’s exciting because artists are coming…” He adds, “The artists make it interesting, then the rents go up. More shops, studios, cafes, high-end antiques… It’s common throughout history, what can I say about it?” On asked about whether he thinks this phenomenon will contribute to the gentrification of Southwest Yonkers and possible subsequent displacement of many of the low-income communities that live in the area, Romero replied  “I’m not an activist. I was a neutral journalist. I come here completely self-indulgent. Whatever is out there, I’ve seen it and I’m tired… I’ve seen too many terrible things. Thank God for the people out there doing things (for social justice). But I’m not one of them…I’ve always felt my role was that of an observer.”

While it is certainly exciting to have artists from different places and different walks of life come into Yonkers and add to the cultural diversity, it is important to consider whether the “bringing in the artists” development agenda of the city as articulated by the local Business Improvement District, is the best way forward in a community like Southwest Yonkers. On the one hand, antique stores and quaint cafes could bring in job opportunities and a wealthier cliental fueling the economy, but on the other, as many people living in the nearby Schlobohm housing projects have wondered, “will these places hire folk like them?”

It is also necessary to understand what role the individual artist play within this scheme of things. Street art originally came about as a way of rebellion, a way to express the voices of the unheard – so, it is important to understand the city’s agenda in having someone of Nick Walker’s fame paint murals around the city. Lastly, it becomes important, if one is trying to increase the cultural capital of Yonkers, to promote local artists as well.