{"id":148094,"date":"2025-08-15T15:10:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/148094\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T15:10:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:10:30","slug":"mission-to-revive-abandoned-spaces-with-art-expands-to-public-housing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/148094\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission to Revive Abandoned Spaces With Art Expands to Public Housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Usually, a New York City vacant storefront has nothing to offer passersby but the dead and empty husk of what once was an alive and vibrant business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The nonprofit Art on the Ave, however, has taken over some of that barren window space\u00a0 to transform it into elaborate art exhibits for New Yorkers to enjoy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barbara Anderson, the founder of Art on the Ave, came up with the idea during the COVID-19 pandemic while jogging through the Upper West Side and taking note of all of the closed-down businesses coupled with all of the struggling street artists coping with societal shutdown.<\/p>\n

Art on the Ave rolls out pieces for the general public to see for a select amount of time, usually three months, allowing for different crops of local artists to demonstrate their work to anyone who walks by.<\/p>\n

Five years later, the organization\u2019s latest exhibition has now taken root at the Alfred E. Smith Houses along St. James Place on the Lower East Side. The effort is part of a broader project in collaboration with the nearby New York Presbyterian Hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Titled \u201cHere, Now, Always: Everybody\u2019s Neighborhood,\u201d the exhibit is the nonprofit\u2019s first foray into a space located at a New York City Housing Authority complex. It will also include art at two other nearby locations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201dWe\u2019ve continued in that vein of bringing art to communities where there are loads of artists living because we all know that artists can no longer afford to live in the areas traditionally known to be the artist enclaves of New York City,\u201d said Anderson.<\/p>\n

She told THE CITY she hopes this can be the first of many collaborations with NYCHA to beautify areas surrounding public housing in the city, and officials have expressed interest in continuing their relationship with Art on the Ave, though there are not yet concrete plans for an expansion.<\/p>\n

\"ArtArt on the Ave founder Barbara Anderson, Aug. 6, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n

For every exhibition, Anderson cleans up the sidewalk and all of the space she intends to use inside the vacant lot while also repainting the gates and areas around the property. She even painted the borders of the deli that\u2019s open and operating in between the empty retail spots that will be used for the art exhibits. She regularly makes trips to the three locations to clean up litter and trash that accumulates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of having graffiti and the glass looking ugly, we thought it would be nice to have residents\u2019 art hanging so people can enjoy it and we can have a beautiful view,\u201d said president of the Smith Houses residents association, Aixa Torres. \u201cThings like this just make life a little bit brighter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feeling Beautiful\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anderson also has various programming scheduled at the complex including a painting event<\/a> on Saturday, Aug. 16, organized with the Raising Haven Community Garden, located in the Smith Houses, and an art walk tour with older residents planned for next week.<\/p>\n

Two of the artists on display at the NYCHA space \u2014 where a laundromat, doctor\u2019s office and Checkers fast food restaurant used to be \u2014\u00a0currently live at the Smith Houses: Ivy Shields, 26, a photographer, and Peter Passuntino, 89, a painter. Shields\u2019 series of photographs in the installation was actually taken last year on the same street where the Smith Houses exhibition now lies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strive very hard to have as many hyper-local artists as we can,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cIt makes such a difference to people walking by to see art that they can relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest exhibit is meant to reflect each of the artists\u2019 perspectives, homes and cultures as well as present work from local talent in the area, from painters to photographers to textile artists.<\/p>\n

\"PhotographerIvy Shields points to her art work displayed outside the Smith Houses, Aug. 6, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want all NYCHA housing kids to really be inspired and I don\u2019t want them to ever feel like they aren\u2019t as beautiful as they are just because they\u2019re coming from somewhere that\u2019s not desirable,\u201d said Shields.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Art on the Ave has allowed Shields, who is a freelance photographer, to meet and interact with even more artists in her community and around the city, opening up doors for other creative opportunities in the process.<\/p>\n

Passuntino, an on-and-off city resident since 1965, moved back to Manhattan last year after living in France for five years. He quickly realized life wasn\u2019t much cheaper stateside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSoHo\u2019s not like it used to be,\u201d said Passuntino looking back on his life in the chic neighborhood where he lived for three decades. \u201cNow people go there to buy a handbag or pair of shoes. There were hundreds of [art] galleries in SoHo but now there may be only 10 or 20.\u201d<\/p>\n

Passuntino has been living at the Smith Houses since last year and is still relatively new to the community. Through Art on the Ave, he has grown much closer with his fellow neighbors since being recruited by Anderson through his current roommate to be a part of the Everybody\u2019s Neighborhood exhibit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of people here now,\u201d said Passuntino. \u201cI told them, \u2018Go to the St. James Place and look at the gallery because it\u2019s going to be another SoHo.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Warm Hues<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before founding Art on the Ave, Anderson spent 30 years as a middle school and high school educator around the globe. Her warm demeanor draws in the people involved with the arts project.<\/p>\n

On a tour she gave THE CITY of one of the creative space residencies offered through the organization, one artist referred to her as \u201cthe Beautiful Barbara,\u201d while another greeted her with a suffocating bear hug while Anderson wanted to hear about his vacation to Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore of this needs to happen in vacant storefronts across the city,\u201d said B.J. Jones, executive director of the \u201cNew\u201d New York Panel<\/a>, an initiative of the Mayor\u2019s Office of Policy & Planning, which has helped Anderson find spaces. \u201cThey\u2019ve activated the space and created a community in the process too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0And the program has even drawn struggling artists out of dire situations.<\/p>\n

When Naderson St. Pierre moved to New York City in 2022 without family or friends, and painted on the subway for almost half a year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ArtistArtist Peter Passuntino, 89, looking through stacks of his most recent work. August 11, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales\/THE CITY<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were days when I didn\u2019t have money for hotel rooms, so I slept on the J train,\u201d said St. Pierre, who is originally from Haiti. \u201cA lot of artists just need a space to create. That\u2019s all I needed, and Barbara provided that space for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He eventually found housing and slept, ate and painted in a small room in Brooklyn, hoping to find exposure and live comfortably.<\/p>\n

When St. Pierre crossed paths with Art on the Ave, his life completely transformed. After receiving a spot at an Art on the Ave exhibition in Fulton Center, he soon earned a residency at one of the creative spaces offered by Anderson which exposed him to collectors, prospective buyers and new opportunities in different parts of the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He now lives in a new apartment in Brooklyn and makes art in a new studio space in Midtown Manhattan operated by Art on the Ave, after completing art residencies in Amsterdam and France \u2014 including designing a piano for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, artists have made over $415,000 in sales through their participation with Art on the Ave since it began in 2020, according to Anderson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anderson stated the mission of Art on the Ave was to take elements of life which usually don\u2019t mix and bring them together in the hopes of fostering community cohesion and engagement with the artistic talent inside the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that people look in the window and they\u2019re just standing there watching and glancing around at the work on display, that makes me so happy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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