“Making History Bushwick” hardcover

Coinciding with the tenth annual Bushwick Open Studios, Arts in Bushwick is releasing Making History Bushwick, a 400 page hardcover book written, edited and published by the collective that facilitates the annual event. The glossy 9×9 inch hardcover features 400 pieces of art by 405 artists, submitted as part of an open call exhibition in Bushwick in spring of 2015.

While many people were integral to this project happening, the book and exhibition were made possible by the extraordinary organizing efforts of volunteer Arts in Bushwick coordinator Cibele Viera.

Excerpted from book introduction by Nicole Brydson:

The second half of this book features 400 works by 405 artists who responded to Arts in Bushwick’s open call to be included in the Making History Exhibition and Arts in Bushwick benefit, which provided the means for publishing this book and supporting our year-round programming.

Kylie Heidenheimer, NET II, 2015, oil on wood panel, 17 × 17 inches in “Making History BUshwick”

The exhibition’s open call asked artists to self select as part of the recent art history of Bushwick. The show was inspired by an eponymous text by the artist and writer Loren Munk, who has graciously agreed to let us reprint his essay here, just ahead of the artwork on display. We feel this is an amazing introduction to the work that directly takes up the challenge Munk makes to us, the artists, to empower ourselves to create and document our own history. Here it is: We made it in the most independent fashion we could muster.

In epilogue, artist Jen Hitchings interviews Krista Saunders Scenna and Dexter Wimberly, the curators of Making History, which opened on April 19 and closed on May 10, 2015, with a benefit raffling off work to fund the labor of love that is this book that you hold in your hand. Together with the Arts in Bushwick Benefit Committee, they led more than 60 volunteers in putting together the visual experience of the exhibition at Store Front Ten Eyck gallery – owned and operated by the artist Deborah Brown, whose support was immensely helpful through the lead-up to and exhibition of Making History.