Walk into the maze like building at 120 Stuyvesant Place, and your senses are attacked from all angles. The music rings out from the hallways while sculptures, installations, photographs, and paintings hang from every wall. Art By The Ferry took a long time to put together, but it's obviously a labor of love. Hundreds of artists came together to display 19 exhibitions featuring their talent at the premiere of the weekend festival.
"It took months to put this all together," said Joyce Malerba-Goldstein, President of the Staten Island Creative Community. "We all wanted to get back to a community mission of economic development and the arts. Three hundred artists are here showing their art, playing their music, reading their poetry, amongst other things-and most are from Staten Island!"
The Staten Island Creative Community, the Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island (COAHSI), and ArtLab joined together with local businesses to support and celebrate the arts for the three day event.
"When I started working with COAHSI, I was reaching out to the community and there were all of these incredible artists," said executive director of COASHI, Melanie Cohn. "It seemed like all of this energy was right here and what better way to tap into it but with an event like this?"
The exhibits are as varied as the type of artists on the Island, and many say that's the appeal at the festival. "It's a community builder," said artist Steve Faust. "There's a real community here. As things get more expensive, Staten Island gets the overflow on the North Shore of artists looking to work and display. Maybe that's to our benefit because look at the diversified mix of works at this festival!"
Artist Tom Ronse said it was a pleasure to display some of his pieces, many of which involve found object from the Island, to viewers who perhaps understand where those objects came from. "I use a lot of found material from places like South Beach that people may recognize," said Ronse. "I feel like we should do more things like this. People have been looking to Snug Harbor to become something of a source for artists but now more people are coming here to the North Shore too.
The organizers were sure to take advantage of everything the North Shore has to offer, including a location conveniently placed by the Staten Island Ferry. "We definitely wanted to hook into that Ferry energy, with Islanders coming on and off it everyday or people just visiting." Said Cohn. "We wanted to say 'Hey, there's something here and there's a reason to stay and look around so come and be a part of it!'" Cohn says this endeavor was truly the result of the adage, "If you build it they will come" and she says it was proof that there is a creative community here ready to make its mark.
Power is the exact word that comes to mind from one of the most shocking and moving exhibits at the festival called "Notes on Battlespace: Unrealities of War. Photographs of Iraq and Afghanistan" by former soldiers and photojournalists.
"The photographers were told they were not allowed to publish these images!," said Malerba-Goldstein. In fact, in the exhibit room, a speaker plays the voices of the men who took the violent and somber photographs. "Some of these couldn't be published or we were told we would be kicked out of the inbeds of the military," says a deep voice on the recording. "There's so much we can't photograph in Iraq that is considered off limits: Pretty much everything that gives evidence of war. But we can show them here." The images are easily shocking, and display, up close, the death and destruction that war brings to both sides of the divide. "This show is about the real," says another voice from the speakers. "This show is about the truths. A veteran doesn't come home from war he just comes back."
Malerba-Goldstein, who has worked so hard to manifest this festival, is visibly shaken when she enters that particular exhibit. She says she is proud to have been able to help provide a space for important works like this, and of all the other hundreds of artists, right here on the Island.
"I don't know if you could pull this off in a larger community," she said. "We benefit from having a smaller more tightly knit community on the Island. Everyone helped! Spaces were provided by the St. George Theatre, the St. George Library, and two local real estate companies. Restaurants donated food and students from Curtis High School volunteered." A sculptor and painter herself, she understands the struggle of an artist to work and find a safe space for exhibition in the city. "I believe everyone is connected and you really feel that energy," she said. "We did this on just 400 dollars and the rest came from donations! We plan to do this next year and the year after that."
When asked how she feels about all the work pulled together for the festival she smiles and said, "Exhausted!"
