Category Archives: artificial turf

"Green" exhibition at Haven Arts

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“Green” exhibition at Haven Arts

Haven Arts
50 Bruckner Blvd., Bronx, NY  10454

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Carol Zakaluk at 718-292-8217 for information

                                          
“Green”
Curated by Carol Zakaluk

October 17 – October 25, 2008
Opening Reception:  Friday, October 17, 5 – 9pm
Authors’ Talk:  Wednesday,  October 21, 5 – 8pm
Gallery Hours:  Daily, noon – 6pm

Haven Arts is pleased to announce “Green,” a two-part exhibition.  In Gallery I, we will showcase recent projects of organizations and individuals who strive to make both New York City and the nation a greener and more self-sustaining place.  In Gallery II, we will present the work of dedicated eco-artists, and artists who use recycled materials and pigments made from earth.

Exhibiting in Gallery I, the organizations engaged in greening their communities are: Alliance For Climate Protection (posters and television ads from their national campaign), Friends of Brook Park (Mott Haven Tree Project, community garden work, and more), South Bronx CSA Program (growers and consumers providing mutual support), South Bronx Food Coop (providing affordable, nutritious, organic food), and The Bronx TNR Group (Trap, Neuter, and Return of feral cats as humane solution to too many strays).  Also on display are sustainable design proposals for a new Willis Avenue, Bronx corridor, and an air-filtration system for the Major Deegan Expressway by five students from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.  Architect Juan Carlos Taino contributes green design proposals for the Melrose neighborhood in the Bronx.

Eco-art and earth-friendly art fills Gallery II.  Environmental art as seen in this exhibition interprets nature, informs us about nature’s processes, and stridently calls attention to environmental problems we face.  It re-envisions our relationship to nature, proposing new ways for us to co-exist with our environment.  Some attempts to reclaim or remediate damaged environments, restoring ecosystems in artistic ways.  One piece, created by an artist from South India, reverentially pays homage to the Earth as mother goddess.  Included is work in sculpture, photography, painting, collage, and fiber art by participating artists Bob Braine, Jacob Bluestone, Harry J. Bubbins, Gian Pietro Carriozza, Janet Culbertson, Nickolas Lascot,  MArishka, Walter Mason, Catherine Blackwell-Pena, Sarah Phillips, and Ustya Tarnawsky.

Highlights from “Green” in Gallery II include–

Catherine Blackwell-Pena’s participatory sculpture, where the viewer steps atop a 24” cement square to view a photo of a man on a hillside, standing on a similar square.  The piece invites the viewer to heighten their environmental awareness as they assume a new vantage point both physically and mentally in a re-examination of the clash of culture and nature.

Walter Mason contributes elegantly beautiful, transient “land art” (captured with four photographs) for which he meticulously placed 238 dewdrops on Autumn leaves, and balanced over 80 pebbles on sticks, on sand, and on concrete.

Bob Braine offers eight prints, images taken of North Brother Island, just off the Bronx, depicting nature’s reclamation of the abandoned Riverside Hospital, the contagious disease sanitarium and later, psychiatric hospital.  Braine additionally sent up a weather balloon with attached camera to capture the resurgence of nature through the derelict structures using infrared film.

Harry J. Bubbins offers photographs of his decade plus work in the South South Bronx in gardens and on the waters. With a sculptural installation featuring asphalt that was removed from an abandoned lot, to create more space for greenery.

Nickolas Lascot’s 13’ crocodile sculpture is a beast to be reckoned with, made from recycled newspaper, cardboard, home-made glue, various construction materials, and paint.   

Authors’ Talk

On Wednesday, October 21st from 5 to 8pm, two nationally acclaimed environmentally-minded authors will speak about their work.  Lori Bongiorno (author of “Green, Greener, Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-Smart Choices a Part of Your Life”) and Eugene Linden (author of eight books, including “The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of Civilizations” and “The Future is in Plain Sight: Nine Clues to the Coming Instability”).  After speaking, Ms. Bongiorno and Mr. Linden will answer questions from the audience.  Contact carol@havenarts.org for additional flyer about the talk, or to rsvp for a large group of attendees.

Directions to Haven Arts:  6 train to 3rd Ave./138th St.  Exit the station at the “Alexander Ave” staircase.   Walk South on Alexander Ave.,four short blocks to Bruckner Blvd. Turn left and walk East on Bruckner Blvd., less than 1/2 block to gallery.

Artificial Turf: DANGER!

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October 3, 2008

Honorable members of the City Council, Scott Stringer, Borough President of Manhattan and Board Member of Randall’s
Island Sports Foundation (RISF) and Aimee Boden, the Executive Director of the RISF:

I appreciate your attendance or that of your representatives at the City Council Parks and Recreation Committee meeting on
Monday, September 22nd, 2008 entitled Oversight of the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation and the NYC Parks
Department.

Dr. Crain – a psychologist, who has studied the impacts of lead ingestion by children on their development – provided
testimony that requires your immediate attention as he addressed the real dangers of exposure to lead in synthetic turf fields
in our city. It is therefore worthy of recapping to you.

In his public statements to you on the record (attached for your reference), Dr. Crain announced that the toxicity of
synthetic turf being used by both the Parks Department of Parks and Recreation and the RISF is significant having reached
dangerous levels of lead in both the polyethelene ‘blades’ and the pellets forming the base or cushion of the turf. A
peer-reviewed study to be published in the Journal of Exposure Science in November (also attached) provides more details
of these findings.

As Dr. Crain noted, esteemed heath scientists such as Philip J. Landrigan, Bruce Lanphear, and R.L. Canfield say there may
be no safe level of lead exposure. Even low levels can damage the child’s developing nervous system. Dr. Crain called for
a moratorium on new installations until much more research has been conducted.

Public officials responsible for approving, monitoring or halting the use of synthetic turf also have the responsibility to take
actions to warn the public about this danger and should ensure at the very least that children under the age of 6 years are
kept from the fields until more is known.

Please take note that notice to you of such serious findings require immediate action for both legal and moral reasons and
that your positions as public officials do not insulate you from reckless actions you take in response to this new peer-
reviewed scientific data.

Would you please let me know what steps you are taking to inform the relevant city engineers and commissioners of this
matter and what steps they in turn are taking to remove this environmental threat to the health of those exposed to synthetic
turf?

Thank you for your good work.

Robert Jereski
Co-founder
New York Climate Action Group

Groups Urge a Moratorium on City Use of Artificial Turf

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Print the attached letter and send it to the Mayor about this important issue!

_____
Several environmental and civic groups are calling for a moratorium on the use of artificial turf in new sports fields in the city, and question the seriousness with which the Bloomberg administration is investigating the turf’s potential hazards.

In a letter to the city’s parks and health commissioners, dated Thursday, the groups say the installation of such fields should be suspended pending the results of a review of health risks being conducted by the health department.

“The city has a responsibility to protect children, and a vested interest in protecting the environment,” the letter states. “Yet even as evidence suggested that artificial turf may pose health risks and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene initiated its review, the Parks Department continued to make plans to install dozens more artificial-turf fields. The Parks Department has shown little interest in studying artificial turf’s effects on health and the environment.”

The letter adds, “This brings into question the agencies’ commitment to conducting a thorough health and safety review of artificial turf.”

The call for a moratorium is part of a growing concern among parents, public health officials and environmentalists about synthetic-turf fields. Thousands of the fields have been installed nationwide in recent years, including 77 in the city during the past decade. Twenty-three more are planned.

from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/nyregion/29turf.html