February 4, 2009
Free culture trolley delivers best of the Bronx arts
NewYorkology contributor Anna Links has been sizing up some of the newer tours on offer in NYC, including the Staten Island pizza tour, the Photo Walk-about and now the once-a-month free Bronx Trolley culture trek. Her report:
Odds are that you don’t know much about the Bronx.
Maybe a little something about the birth of hip-hop, Co-op City, Robert Moses, “The Taking of Pelham 123,” Yankee Stadium and the zoo, but save passing through it on your way out of town, you’ve probably never properly visited.
I mean, it’s far, right? What would you actually go there for?
The answer: For the Bronx Culture Trolley; It’s not your mama’s gallery walk.
A project of the Bronx Council on the Arts, the free Culture Trolley runs the first Wednesday of each month (except January and September) and links a host of the South Bronx’ cultural establishments. You’ll get borough institutions such as the Bronx Museum for the Arts as well as the experimental, like the Bronx Blue Bedroom Project, where Blanka Amezkua turns her bedroom over to a different artist each month.
Much more than a wine and cheese gallery reception, the Culture Trolley experience is essentially an open house for the South Bronx’ lively arts scene.
The schedule changes monthly, but the evening always begins at the Longwood Art Gallery at Hostos Community College. It’s located on Grand Concourse and 149th and can be reached from Midtown in about 25 minutes on the 2, 4 or 5 trains to 149th Street. Sign in at the desk in the gallery and board the trolley at 5:30, 6:30 or 7:30 p.m.
From there, the trolley route hits spots such as the Bronx Museum on the Arts for a private group tour, the Haven Arts Gallery, the Bruckner Gallery and the BMA’s Project Space.
(The February trek, which takes place tonight, will tour the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Bronx Blue Bedroom Project, the Alexander Avenue Antiques District (Bruckner Gallery, Haven Arts Gallery, BMA Project Space) and visit the Sweetwaters Bar & Grill for refreshments before returning to Hostos.)
The variety of featured art is a big draw. On a standard trolley night, the BCA arranges an itinerary that includes music, theater, visual arts, vendors, openings, private tours, poetry readings and dance. It’s a showcase, and the Bronx is proud of what it has to show you.
The roster of venues is available mid-month on BCA’s website. Print it out and review on the subway trip up to the Bronx. You’ll want to have an idea of the stops you must see and those you’re willing to skip. And since it’s a tight schedule, you might not find it easy to check out anything not on their list.
Best advice: Catch the 5:30 p.m. trolley. It gives you time to linger as well as finish up with a drink at the final stop. If you’re on the two later trolleys, the schedule is more compressed and the stops become increasingly perfunctory. If you hang out at any stop to enjoy the music or talk with the artists, you’re on your own to get back home after the last trolley departs.
Another tip: Sit towards the front of the trolley. There’s often live music as part of the Bronx Council on the Art’s Works in Motion project and while it certainly adds ambiance, it makes it pretty hard to hear announcements. If it’s your first time on the trolley, those announcements can be quite helpful. If you have questions, ask for Phil Cardone, the trolley coordinator, who usually stands towards the front and is glad to help. He knows most of the folks riding the trolley, as it seems to be a pretty regular crowd of Bronx residents and art aficionados, which gives the evening a pleasant sense of community and intimacy.
This is especially evident at the Bronx Blue Bedroom Project in the apartment of Blanka Amezkua. Blanka invites a different artist each month to use her bedroom as a space to present their work. After climbing the stairs to her place in Mott Haven, you might interrupt Blanka, the featured artist and their friends eating dinner (as the trolley did during the December tour,) but they gladly usher you into the blue bedroom where the artist talks about the artwork and answers questions.
Standing in a stranger’s bedroom as a welcome and invited guest is the sort of standard surprise the Bronx Culture Trolley offers.
Later, after another long climb (there are significant stairs involved in some of the venues), we enjoyed a guided tour of the LDR Studio Gallery, also set up in private apartment. The guide was a young artist with pronounced opinions on the New York art scene, especially the ripe-for- exploitation one burgeoning in the South Bronx. And while “The Anti SoBro Show” was somewhat awkward — here we were after all, appreciating the same scene he was condemning — he was sincere. Not so much of that in Chelsea.
You’ll spy a hipster or two and you’ll wonder if the South Bronx is the next big thing or if you’ve already missed the boat. The scene is well worth the trip.
Reservations are suggested as the trolley seats a limited number of riders. Leave a message at (718) 931-9500 Ext. 33.
Photo credit: Phil Cardone, courtesy of the Bronx Council on the Arts.
February 4, 2009 9:28 AM in Cheap Stuff, Museums, Out of Manhattan, Sightsology, Tours
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