Exhibition What Defines Greenpoint Identity

15 czerwca, 2019

What Defines Greenpoint Identity exhibition is organized by the Polish Cultural Institute New York, with input from Geoffrey Cobb.

Monday, June 24, 2019 - Thursday, October 31, 2019

The second part of the exhibition, What Defines Greenpoint Identity, curated by the Polish Cultural Institute New York, with input from Geoffrey Cobb, the author of My Little Town: A Brooklyn Girl’s Food Voice, reflects on the footprints generations of immigrants have left in the neighborhood throughout the years. Looking at architecture, social life and nature, it examines how certain landmark buildings have adjusted to the needs of Greenpoint’s new residents and the city’s contemporary infrastructure. This narrative illustrates the diversity of cultures living on one block, and meeting each other in one convenience store, based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It is meant to be an initial reflection on who Brooklynites are. They may be first, second, or third generations of Italians, Germans, Poles, Irish, Puerto Ricans, French, etc.

Illustrated by contemporary photographs, the highlights capture recent changes in this diverse, dynamically changing neighborhood. There is focus on different aspects of living, such as housing, shopping, children upbringing, and commuting, as well as art. There are buildings and institutions that have endured unchanged and some that have transformed, like the Romanesque Revival style church on the corner of Nassau and North 15th street, which was built at the beginning of 20th century by Slovak immigrants, and became the Roman Catholic San Damiano Mission in 2015.
There is a spotlight on the modern developments in Greenpoint like Belvedere Bridge Enterprises, which first offered brand-new condominiums at the beginning of 2000s, and which was built by a company that was funded and run by Polish immigrants, who came to Greenpoint from Poland around 1990.

There are places which offer ongoing contemporary art programming like the neighborhood’s new independent art space, Greenpoint Projects. It features under-the-radar modern and contemporary shows. Presented last year exhibition by Magdalena Abakanowicz and Eugeniusz Markowski was considered one of the best curations in all of Brooklyn last year by the fine arts publication Hyperallergic.

Photos thanks to generosity of Agnieszka Wilczynski and Marzena Giza.