This weekend, Dumbo Brooklyn is host for the 2011 Dumbo Arts Festival and will feature open artists studios, exhibitions, and outdoor projects throughout the neighborhood. This year’s festival will feature more than 500 artists, 120 open art studios, 40 live performances, family programming and more — all free of charge.

(Immersive Surfaces)

Friday’s performance art highlights include:

• 8:30 PM – 9:00 PM: Janet Biggs’ premier of Wet Exit, a multi-media performance that combines projected video images and musicians with choreographed kayakers performing in the East River.
• 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM: Carl Skelton and Luke DuBois’ Sweet Stream Love’s River gives guests the chance to text short love notes from their smart phones to be projected glowing in the rippling surface of the water at Empire Stores. Visitors to the festival are invited to send short love notes via SMS from their smartphones to 646-389-1766 to be displayed on the Main Street façade of the Empire Stores.
• 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM: Immersive Surfaces projects video onto the Manhattan Bridge anchorage and surrounding cityscape to blur boundaries between perception, art and technology. (Locations: The Triangle at Pearl & Front St., Jay & Water St., Front & Adams St.

There’s also The DUMBO Underground, a benefit party for Free Arts NYC: “Help us kick-off the DUMBO Arts Festival on with a night of burlesque, music and raffles to help raise funds for Free Arts NYC, a wonderful organization that provides arts and mentorship programs to under-served children in NYC.” (on Friday, 9/23 10pm-3am. 1 Front Street, Corner of Front St & Old Fulton, Brooklyn, 11201) *Use code: DUMBONYC to receive $5 off when purchasing tickets online*

Below are some additional preview items you don’t want to miss.

1) Smack Mellon Gallery – Isidro Blasco

Isidro Blasco
Tilted

Madrid-born New York-based artist Isidro Blasco creates photographic sculptures and multimedia installations composed of images of places where he has lived, worked and visited. In Tilted, Blasco creates perspectival fragmentations of Smack Mellon’s gallery space alongside a prismatic recreation of a Dumbo streetscape. Photographs taken from multiple perspective points are combined to create mosaic-like patterns and are then mounted onto three dimensional ramshackle constructions built from repurposed wood. More info.

Exhibition Dates: September 24 – October 30, 2011
Artists’ Reception: Saturday, September 24, 5-8pm
Location: Smack Mellon, 92 Plymouth Street, upper level

2) Smack Mellon Gallery – Rachel Beach

Rachel Beach
Distance Trance

Re-imagining the basics of structure and image, Rachel Beach’s skillfully constructed architectonic objects curiously hover between sign and real, visible and invisible. Highlighting the tension between artificial and natural, Beach’s new series of sculptures methodically combine contrasting surfaces of trompe l’oeil veneers with salvaged construction beams left in their aged condition. Brightly painted edges carve out illusions of space from the chunky cuts of wood. In dialogue with the sculptures are new series of silkscreens in which monochromatic patterns of formal geometric abstraction become symbols of space. More info.

Exhibition Dates: September 24 – October 30, 2011
Artists’ Reception: Saturday, September 24, 5-8pm
Location: Smack Mellon, 92 Plymouth Street, upper level

3) Dumbo Arts Center’s video_dumbo

Dumbo Arts Center’s video_dumbo is a festival for contemporary video art curated by Caspar Stracke and Gabriela Monroy. The festival provides local emerging artists with an exhibition platform and is augmented by a number of established, international selections.

Location: 112 Water Street, Brooklyn, NY

4) Dan Wonderly’s PORTALS at 30 Washington St

From Dan Wonderly: “The inspiration for this body of work stems from years of looking at my surroundings, imagining how things might appear if I could shrink down to an inch tall and go exploring. For the series, I scoured the DUMBO neighborhood and photographed different PORTALS—defined as a doorway, gate, or other entrance—to create 16 macro or near-macro vignettes of drains, cracks, holes or miniature environments I envision as entrances into another world.”

Location: 30 Washington Street (dumboartsfestival.com/events/portals-dumbo)

Loosecubes is a community that connects members with an empty desk, studio, or sofa with other members who need a productive and inspiring place to work. They have been hugely successful in getting individual freelancers, remote workers, and travelling staff to connect with like-minded people online to co-work offline (or “in real life”). Loosecubes makes it easy to find the right people to share your workday with. They are based in Dumbo so we caught up with founder Campbell McKellar, Anna Thomas (Chief Happiness Officer), and Anthony Marinos (Captain Awesome) at their cool looking 20 Jay Street office.

Q: Congratulations! Loosecubes is now in 454 cities and 58 countries in only 14+ months. When you first started Loosecubes, did you imagine that the coworking community would be this open to sharing their space with others?

Thank you! We’re so thrilled that our members can work around the world. When our Founder and CEO, Campbell McKellar, first had the idea for Loosecubes, she wasn’t entirely familiar with the coworking movement. It wasn’t long before she became a member of New Work City (NWC), a collaborative coworking space in Lower Manhattan, and experienced the magic of coworking first hand. At NWC, Campbell was afforded the opportunity to make incredibly valuable connections with professionals and resources in the local community that she may never have been able to make otherwise. Moreover, the more people she met in the coworking community, the more their value of openness became apparent. Members of the coworking community are open to learning from each other and sharing ideas, and being inclusive rather than exclusive. As Loosecubes, we’re excited to be the platform that helps coworking spaces around the world connect with independents and entrepreneurs in their communities and beyond.

Q: In today’s world, knowledge can be accessed anywhere and everywhere it lives. The cost of bringing in expertise and people have dropped. This globalization, with cloud computing (sharing of computing resources online), and virtualizing people and office locations have changed how business is done. How has your view of coworking changed business? And how will Loosecubes shape this change?

At Loosecubes, we want to bring the act of coworking everywhere. Empty desks in company offices, sofas in people’s homes, spare easels in shared art studios, even commercial kitchens with one too many stoves! We really believe that opening up one’s office to the local freelance community, fellow entrepreneurs, and business travelers is a great way to build a stronger business and can ultimately lead to new jobs, partnerships, referrals, and friendships. We want to help facilitate valuable connections through shared workspaces that would otherwise be left up to serendipity, and help boost our economy by doing it.

Q: The Loosecubes culture reads like being at an ideal company. Based on other Loosecubes featured around the globe, there seems to be a similar vibe. Is this self selection or a shift in how traditional organizations need to be to succeed?

We’re trying to change the way people work, so we figure it makes sense to start with our own company. Because of this, we do our best to convey our values throughout our site, in our email communications, and in person. Many of the companies who are sharing space on our site embrace a similar work ethos, and understand the implications that a forward-thinking set of company values can have on their employees and business health. We’ve seen that even traditionally conservative organizations are beginning to consider the productivity and happiness effects of a more open, flexible work culture. It’s really exciting to play a role in this work lifestyle shift.

Q: Loosecubes is located in DUMBO Brooklyn, a neighborhood with many startups and entrepreneurs. With Loosecubes in DUMBO, how has it affected your culture?

Loosecubes is proud to be a DUMBO-based business. The culture of the neighborhood and the people in it has had a tremendously positive influence on our company and our brand. The community in DUMBO is very tight knit, and everyone is always up for helping a fellow neighbor. Our employees enjoy walking to work, eating lunch in the triangle, and being able to meet other creative professionals without having to leave the neighborhood. We wouldn’t want to be based anywhere else!

Q: What are your top 3 recommendations on how to be an awesome Loosecuber?

To be an awesome Loosecubes, check out our three Community Guidelines:

1. What happens in Loosecubes stays in Loosecubes. Loosecubes is a community based on trust. When you’re coworking, it’s extra important to take confidentiality seriously. If you have to share, tweet about how cute the dogs are or how nice the Aeron chair is you’re sitting in.
2. No one likes a chatterbox. We’re all here to work, so be respectful of others in your environment who are hard at work. There are always awesome opportunities to connect later while grabbing a cup of coffee or even a beer after work.
3. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Treat your work environment as you would treat your own home. Pitch in to clean the dishes, don’t take things from the fridge that aren’t yours without asking, and try not to overuse the printer. Leave your space exactly the way you found it.

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Thanks guys for your service on behalf of Dumbo, those looking for co-working space, and those offering co-working space! If you’re interested in a few Dumbo based listings, check out some of the following (for example):

• Red Antler, Main Street
• Jay Street
• Flushing Avenue (near Navy Yards)
• 68 Jay Street
• The Digital Zone, Main Street
• Jay Street

Of course you can search in any of the 454+ cities around the globe.

Loosecubes HQ: loosecubes.com/listings/369
20 Jay Street, Brooklyn NY 11201

This weekend is the annual Dumbo Arts Festival. Each year, the Dumbo Arts Festival highlights the arts community by presenting the best in local, national, and international art between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. The festival will take place between Friday, September 23 and Sunday, September 25 and attracts 200,000 visitors and participation of over 500 artists from a variety of disciplines, 100 studios, 50 galleries and stages. The neighborhood becomes one big event of experimental art and music in unexpected places.

Festival hours are Friday 6pm to 9pm, Saturday 12pm to 8pm, and Sunday 12pm to 6pm, and 6pm – midnight for all outdoor art projections.

Go to Dumbo Arts Festival for the full program guide. The Dumbo Arts Festival is produced by Dalzell Productions and Two Trees Management.

Episode 6: Richard Velloso of Olga Guanabara (olgaguanabara.com)
Directed by Orlaith O’Neill
Created by David Castillo
Produced by Blue Barn Pictures, Inc. for DumboNYC on vimeo

In this episode of Crossing Dumbo, Blue Barn Pictures interviews Dumbo resident Richard Velloso, co-owner of Olga Guanabara, a furniture studio in Dumbo at 63 Pearl Street. Olga is named for Richard’s chocolate lab dog, and Guanabara comes from the Tupi-Guarani language (South America), goanã-pará, from gwa “bay,” plus nã “similar to” and ba’ra “sea.” It’s also translated as “the bosom of sea.” Richard talks about his creative work on his custom furniture pieces using wood found on the beach under the Manhattan Bridge.

Crossing Dumbo, a web series of video portraits of artists, entrepreneurs and residents in Dumbo Brooklyn. This is a collaboration between DumboNYC and our talented friends over at Blue Barn Pictures. Different directors from Blue Barn Pictures, a creative content agency, bring their own approach to each interview to create a distinct profile of the person being interviewed and place them within the Dumbo community. The people at Blue Barn Pictures truly love what they do and support the community in a positive way, and for that we’re grateful to have them be a part of Dumbo.

For the Dumbo Art Festival (Sept 23-25) Blue Barn Pictures will open their office into a gallery to showcase Crossing Dumbo. All the Crossing Dumbo participants will be displaying their art and things related to them. Sponsored by Tekserve, they will have with several iPads displaying the episodes along side their art work.

{DumboNYC.com/category/crossing-dumbo/}

A T-Shirt For DUMBO, from Digital DUMBO & Brooklyn Industries

By Andrew Zarick, Co-Founder, Digital DUMBO

Since its founding in January of 2009, Digital DUMBO has seen tremendous growth. Quickly approaching a community size of nearly 10,000 digital influencers, this year we as organizers have been focused on creating additional value for our community. Our monthly events have proven to create lasting business and personal relationships, resulting in revenue growth for the businesses that attend and even a couple Craigslist Missed Connections for the singles in the crowd. Beyond the connections that our events have created, we’ve been actively reaching out to and working with partners that we think both benefit and fit with the organic makeup of the Digital DUMBO community. One of these partners is Brooklyn Industries.

Earlier this year, we met with Brooklyn Industries and began discussing the potential of collaborating on the design of a Digital DUMBO t-shirt. At the time, Brooklyn Industries had recently relocated to DUMBO from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and had just opened a new retail store on Front St. We could have gone through the usual channels to create a t-shirt, but we wanted to do something special for our community by working with not only a Brooklyn company, but a DUMBO company, and a company that actively engages the local community in art, clothing, design and style. Fortunately, they were into the idea of a Brooklyn Industries and Digital DUMBO collaborative t-shirt and agreed to work with us.

After a few weeks of brainstorming followed by design revisions, we agreed on a design that we not only felt represented the Digital DUMBO community but also DUMBO as a whole. Until now, neither Digital DUMBO nor DUMBO had a t-shirt to call its own. The shirt features elements of DUMBO’s digital fabric, using a mouse to create a D and the outline of an iPad for the U, but also prominent DUMBO landmarks like a pillar from the Manhattan bridge to create an M, and the clocktower atop of the old Robert Gair cardboard warehouse on Main St. for the O. And, of course, the bicycle to represent the over 8,000 people that commute to and from DUMBO on a daily basis for the B.

We hope that our community and those that have had the opportunity to experience DUMBO, whether as a resident, commuter, artist or tourist, will be proud to wear this shirt and this design.

The t-shirt will be available for purchase at the next Digital DUMBO event on September 29th and at select locations after the conclusion of the event. Please email contact@digitaldumbo.com with any Digital DUMBO or t-shirt related questions.

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This post was originally written by Andrew Zarick, Co-Founder of Digital DUMBO, for DUMBO.is.

On September 29th, Digital DUMBO will be hosting their own Fashion Night Out with a release of a new t-shirt design for Dumbo and the Digital Dumbo community. Partnered with Dumbo-based Brooklyn Industries, Digital Dumbo will have an official T-Shirt Release Party with Brooklyn Industries and Radballs.

T-shirt supplies are limited and available initially at Digital Dumbo events.

September 29, 2011, 6:30-9:30pm
Dumbo Loft
155 Water Street, Brooklyn NY 11201

To honor the Dumbo Improvement District‘s 5 years, the BID asked us all to fill in the blank for “DUMBO IS ______”. Today’s guest post by Danii Oliver summarizes her idea of what Dumbo is:

DUMBO is…

DUMBO is Down under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. We call it Downtown-Brooklyn Under the Manhattan and Brooklyn-bridge Overpasses. Not an exact anagram but many people in NYC don’t know what the heck nor where the heck DUMBO is. So putting it that way helps them map it out in their minds.

For the seasoned generation of New Yorkers the ones who know New York City better than the back of their hands the area DUMBO has alluded then because, once upon a time you were considered a dumbo for coming down here. So those New Yorkers never charted this part of Brooklyn.

DUMBO is foreign for others. So much so that they have put it out their minds dismissing DUMBO as too difficult to get to or out of the way.

DUMBO is, in fact, in the middle of three (3) major junctions: Fulton Street & Borough Hall not far from Atlantic Terminal; the Manhattan Bridge & the Brooklyn Bridge; the BQE 10 minutes from Queens and 10 minutes from the heart of Brooklyn.

DUMBO is Not out of the way. Nor is it far. Many people bike to DUMBO take the ferry to DUMBO and ride the B25 or B69 buses into the neighborhood.

DUMBO is fresh. We have the cityscape, the river, a water front park and piers to walk down.

DUMBO is safe. We work all day and all night in DUMBO. I’ve walked my dig in the park at 11-12 o’clock in the middle of the night and met neighbors there doing the same.

DUMBO is the epicenter of growth and change in New York City. No other neighborhood is like it. Sorry WillieB, you guys might have “The Burg” & “East WillieB” web series but DUMBO’s got blockbuster films being shot down here. Not to mention tons more commercials, music videos and photo shoots. DUMBO’s got y’all beat!

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by Danii Oliver, Interactive designer and developer. CDO of DAMN Digital Studio, an Interactive Agency.

Congratulations Dumbo Improvement District! Thank you!

Doudou 7 Photography Project

It is that time of year again to invite you for the 7th “Doudou Project.” Doudou is the French word for security blanket. This month Davina Zagury invites children to be photographed with their most treasured/security possessions. This “Doudou Project” will result in a month long exhibit, during which prints will be available for order.

In order to secure your session with Davina a non-refundable $30 deposit ($45 for siblings) is required.
The deposit includes:
- 10 minute studio session time
- On line gallery of edited images
- Option to order prints from the online gallery for additional cost
- Exhibit of images chosen by Davina

To view images from past projects please log on to: www.davinaz.com/705/the-dou-dou-project
To book an appointment: please go to: www.davinaz.com/projectpromotion-signup/
Please note that children should be able to sit independently.

Details:
Date: September 18 & 25th
Hour: 10:00a.m. – 5:00p.m.
Place: POMME, 81 Washington Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn
RSVP in required: www.davinaz.com/projectpromotion-signup/
For additional questions: davinaz@davinaz.com, 914 671 3735

Wild Rise is a new pizza place in Dumbo that officially opened this week. As a Neapolitan pizza lover (I’ve attempted to make this style using ingredients from Italy and modifying the oven, and failed every time), I’m excited that Wild Rise has opened in Dumbo. I tried two of their pies, the Margherita and crimini mushroom & pepperoni and their ingredients and flavors are better integrated than other Neapolitan pizza places in NYC. New York Magazine declared a Neapolitan pizza revolution back in 2009, and as far as we know, this pizza revolution has continued through NYC and now comes to Dumbo.

For those who don’t know about Neapolitan pizza, it’s a specific style that even has a designation. Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana (VPN) was officially established as a denomination of control (DOC) by the Italian government, a designation that made the VPN a legal entity able to give special designation to pizzerias who meet strict requirements that respect the tradition of the art of Neapolitan pizza making. Slice has a good article about What to Expect at a Neapolitan Pizzeria and what is VPN pizza if you haven’t tried one yet. Wild Rise follows authentic Neapolitan pizza-making traditions using “wild, fresh, natural ingredients” but with a modern twist using a custom oven. We asked the artisan pizzamakers at Wild Rise about the new pizza place:

Q: The name Wild Rise – presumably it’s a reference to the yeast. Is that so, and how did you come up with the name?

A: Yes, Wild Rise is a reference to the fact the dough is leavened using a wild yeast culture captured in Italy and kept alive in scientific incubators. Many names were considered, but this one was chosen because it speaks directly to what makes a Neapolitan pizza different and special (the crust/dough) and it speaks directly to what makes Wild Rise Neapolitan pizza different and special (the wild yeast culture).

Q: Wild Rise looks like 1/3 science lab, 1/3 traditional pizza location, and 1/3 bar. It’s a comfortable place to grab a drink, watch the pizza action, and eat one of your pizzas. Is your idea to show us the Neapolitan style using modern techniques?

A: The physical location continues to be 68 Jay Street Bar. Wild Rise is in partnership with 68 Jay Street Bar to serve, in quasi-pop-up fashion, 3 nights a week (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday) for now, possibly expanding to more times down the line. The science lab part is right on. There is plenty of scientific and freaky custom made equipment behind the scenes you didn’t see on display. Will be showing glimpses of that on the Wild Rise blog over time as well as diving into the story behind the ingredients.

Q: What are you most excited about opening Wild Rise?

A: We’re most excited about finally sharing with the public the end product of years of R&D that has until now only been eaten at private pizza tastings. We think of it as thoughtful pizza – pizza with soul. We produce pizza like producing fine wine – with great care in the making and pedigree of the ingredients to achieve a nuanced, complex, and harmonious flavor profile. If Neapolitan is a step up from typical pizza, we aim to stand on the shoulders of that Neapolitan tradition to take pizza to a higher level.

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Welcome to Dumbo, Wild Rise!

Wild Rise (wildrise.com)
at 68 Jay Street Bar (Corner of Jay Street and Water Street), Brooklyn, NY 11201
Open Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings

Reminder that Fashion’s Night Out (various retail locations throughout Dumbo), Dumbo Fight Night (St. Ann’s Warehouse, 38 Water Street), and 1st Thursdays Dumbo Gallery Walk (galleries in Dumbo) is tonight.

Other events at the Brooklyn Bridge Park such as Sunset Pilates on Pier 6 and Stargazing on Pier 1 are tonight.

Powerhouse Arena is hosting a book launch party for When Parents Text (7-9pm). Based on the popular website, When Parents Text is an endearing ode to technologically confused adults. Authors Sophia Fraioli and Lauren Kaelin discuss the creation of the book and site, and share some of their favorite parental texts.

The internationally-celebrated Fashion’s Night Out returns for its 3rd year this Thursday, September 8th, 2011. This year, you don’t have to leave Dumbo to enjoy the festivities. Coinciding with September’s 1st Thursday Gallery Walk, art and fashion lovers will have many places to celebrate and indulge in their passions.

For the most up to date listing of participating locations, please go to the Dumbo BID’s facebook page.