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The Contemporary Excellence of the Bronx Museum of the Arts This month I expanded my location horizons by visiting art in exhibition spaces out of my own immediate area. . I didn’t want to forget this diverse county that for the first half of the 20th century was enhanced by attention-drawing art and wealth. The four-and-a-half-mile Grand Concourse was even inspired by Paris’ most famous boulevard The Champs Elysées. Lined with trees and fancy homes, this roadway, intersected by Fordham Road, was beautifully designed in the latest art deco styles. Landmarks like The Bronx Zoo, Yankee Stadium and the New York Botanical Gardens have since enhanced the bustling urban neighborhoods in the Bronx, New York’s 62nd finally designated county. The Bronx has worn many faces over the years. The building of the Cross Bronx Expressway split neighborhoods in two and many have never recovered. Economically, the Bronx has suffered at the hands of over-development but like the spirit of humanity, the Bronx bounces back time and again and reveals its history and culture through art, architecture and education. The Bronx Museum of the Arts, founded in 1971, is the only fine art museum in the county. For 10 years it was housed in the rotunda of the Bronx County Court House on Grand Concourse and 161st Street and in 1982 relocated five blocks north on the Concourse at 165th. Founded by local residents, the museum holds more than 800 works of contemporary art in a broad spectrum of media. The museum’s new North Building was designed by Arquitectonica, a design firm that originated in Miami, FL and the zig-zagging expansion is far removed from the old 80’s edition. Still, the pleated window design does look great from the road. The BxMA has the unique advantage of featuring under-recognized artists, especially of African, Asian and Latin-American decent. The themes I found swirling around the rooms here are broad but are tied together by the intersection of Bronx related cross-cultures. What’s particularly intriguing is the change in gender roles in the Latin American community and the art expressed therein. It’s important to check out some work included from the 2001 exhibit “One Planet Under a Groove: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art” that examines the transnational impact of hip-hop culture on contemporary art. There is also an education department at the BxMA that holds the promise of offering the youth of the area an outlet for their creativity, which I thoroughly champion. The education department also serves teens, families and adults and encourages networking and career support. Exhibiting now at the museum is here and elsewhere – Artist in the Marketplace, 27th Annual Exhibition. You can visit this one until August 19th. There are 36 artists from throughout the metropolitan area featured so there really is “something for everyone”. Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) is one of the most celebrated and competitive programs for emerging artists in the country. The inflated art market creates tension between art and commerce and so AIM is designed to help artists sustain, survive and thrive in the professional world of art. The breadth of the work is overwhelming but no more so, say, than visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 5th Ave. But at the Met, there is a way to direct your interests due to the massive collections and time periods represented. It’s often best to pick a floor per visit. Here at BxMA, I suggest trying to do the same. Plan your first visit as an overview and then decide what to focus on the next time. The most inviting thing about BxMA for me was the local flavor of the South Bronx. It was an urbanized cultural history lesson at the hands of an imported section in our eastern corner of the nation. And if you are African, Asian or Latin American-Rooted, you will find much of your own family flavor gracing the spaces around you. The BxMA is a valuable and worth while public service for all NYC art lovers. By Train By Bus Visit www.bronxmuseum.org for more info. |