13th Annual Open Studios on August 22 – The GreenPoint | Williamsburg & Bushwick Gazzette
The Morgan Fine Arts Building is hosting its 13th Annual Open Studios on August 22, with hundreds of people expected to attend, according to the organizers.
The Morgan Avenue building houses 20 different studios over five floors. Its artists cover a wide range of mediums including painting, sculpture, silk screening, jewelry-design, illustration, photography, animation, ceramics and film.
The daylong festivities will include an open bar serving wine and beer, and hors d’oeuvres for its guests as well.
Each year the open studios have a featured artist, and this year the organizers have selected renowned artist Jack Early for that position.
“It feels great and with so many other talented people in the building it is going to be a fun day,” said Early. “I’m also gearing up for a new body of paintings and I hope to have some paint on the canvas by Open Studio.”
Early first came to prominence as part of an artistic collaboration with the artist Rob Pruitt in the 1980s. In recent years his work has focused on the study of American pop culture, and over the years his works have been showcased at the Tate Modern in London, at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, and the McCaffrey Fine Art building in New York.
The Morgan Fine Arts Building itself is steeped in history. Over the last seven decades the building has housed a candy factory, and a pillow and bedding factory that provided sleeping bags to the U.S. Army during the Korean Army.
The building is still owned and operated by the family that purchased it all those years ago. Peter Buchman is now at the helm. He is the president of L. Buchman Co. Inc., and also acts as the creative director of the Fine Arts building.
The building became an artist enclave in the early 2000s, and has continued to grow in strength. For Buchman the change made sense due to the changing demographic of the neighborhood, and each year he looks forward to the celebration of the artists’ work as part of the Open Studios.
“The building has a tremendous artist population, and we want to be all about integrating art with the community,” said Buchman. “It’s all about creating a great environment for the artists in the building.”
Morgan Fine Arts Building Open Studios 2015, August 22, 2015, 2-10 p.m., 649 Morgan Avenue. For more information, visit http://morganfineartsbldg.com/index2.html.
Reprinted from The GreenPoint | Williamsburg & Bushwick Gazzette.