From The Peopling of New York City
Contents |
Background and Opening
The time period in which we will be viewing and reacting to the neighborhood is the 90s through today. Essentially, the revitalization, rebuilding, and refurbishing of the Bronx. Our goal is so show how the core essences of the Bronx, that was hidden behind layers of dust, poverty, and rubble, is now being washed away—and the community is coming together, once again, and thinking about its future. The community is joining forces and considering the now, with a direct eye for the future. Preservation of the past for the future, is the South Bronx's current mode of thinking.
Group Members
Tihela Feit * Conor Anderson * Mingfan Sun * Michael Hintze
Images of the Neighborhood
Image Gallery
 Subway Stare Credit: T.Feit |
 Corner Congregation Credit: T.Feit |
 US Post Office Credit: T.Feit |
 Remnants Credit: T.Feit |
 Sign Posts Along the Way Credit: T. Feit |
 Untitled: March 11, 2008 Credit: T.Feit |
 Art Deco Examples from the Concourse Credit: T.Feit |
 Concourse Plaza Hotel Credit: T.Feit |
 The Vista:New Construction: The New Yankee Stadium Credit T.Feit |
 Court House Sculpture Credit: T.Feit |
 From the NYTimes |
 From the NYTimes |
 From the NYTimes |
Institution Choice: The Bronx Museum of Art
Art, in a general sense, can be an instrument to uncover the infrastructure of a neighborhood. The arts as a global concept can be used to express the vibe and feel of a neighborhood, and it also acts as a distinction of sorts, and highlights what separates one neighborhood from another. The arts, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries, have become vehicles to beautifying and bringing out the uniqueness of a community. With this in mind, we have chosen the Bronx Museum of the Arts as our institution. It is a non-profit organization located at 1040 Grand Concourse at 165 Street, within the heart of the South Bronx. The institution’s own website states, “...the Bronx Museum was founded in 1971 by a group of local residents to bring the visual arts to the Bronx.” The institution has a large involvement in sustaining the community through the arts, and has a strong commitment to the education component of the museum. Their mission statement is:
“By providing a flexible space for discussion and experimentation, the
Education Department at the Bronx Museum works as a catalyst for
ideas and exchange. We promote engaging and transformational art
experiences with the goal of connecting the viewer’s personal experience
with relevant areas in contemporary culture.”
We chose this institution because it acts as a doorway into the South Bronx community for the purpose of studying its history and its future through the arts, as the BxMA is, according to The New York Times, “…an important player in shaping New York art of both the present and future.”
Institution Report
A History and an Interview: A Meeting of a Community and Institution
The building itself is intriguing all on its own, coupled with a strong institutional mission however, the Bronx Museum of the Arts becomes a primer example of a South Bronx cultural institution that illustrates how nothing in the South Bronx stands alone—everything meets and mixes. Stephanie, the manager of visitor services and the gift shop at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, on Friday when I went to visit and find someone to interview, had just returned to her post at the front desk, and was able to answer my questions in between the few phone calls that she needed to answer. She was not only knowledgeable; she had a passion for the institution and what it stands for.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA) was established in 1971 by “community activists,” a group of four women who were “promoters of civic pride who were passionate about revitalizing the South Bronx.” The 1970s in general, all across the nation was a time of “great social and political upheaval.” These women established an institution that became the showcase of the “decade that gave birth to many artistic movements in the Bronx, including hip-hop, graffiti, and artist collaborations.” The museum now, in the 21st century still carries with it the sense of community and are completely immersed within the current renaissance, revitalization, and the second coming really of the South Bronx. The past changes that the museum was able to partake in “set into motion major social changes in the Bronx that are still [now] being celebrated” and elaborated on today.
TF: So, could we quickly go though the history of the institution? In class we’ve talked about the period of the “Bronx is Burning,” where were you [as an institution] then and were are you now?
Stephanie: BxMA was established in 1971 by women [community activists Ethel Bramson, Fanny Casher, Irma L. Fleck, and Mary-Jane Hanzlik]. It was housed in the courthouse rotunda [the Bronx Country Building on 161st and the Grand Concourse] then it moved [in 1982] to a synagogue at the BxMA’s current site on 165th and the Grand Concourse. This building was opened in October of 2006. We still have the same “vision,” we are involved with culture, improvements. We are plugging into the community, which is a multi-everything community, have a strong education department and focus. We are moving forward with the Bronx.
The building that currently houses the BxMA collection, completed in October of 2006 was designed by the Miami based architectural firm Arquitectonica. The building without a doubt is Modern. Done in high glossed metal, the building stands out along the Grand Concourse in its blatant “modern-ness”. The museum showing gallery is small, only taking up one and a half floors of the building, is unobscured by walls and is bathed in light, even on a the gray and dreary day that I visited. This open and airy space is all that the museum needs to convey its presence. The façade of the building appears like a piece of folded and fanned piece of paper, and cut with glass windows just furthers the modern feel, and facilitates the open floor plan.
TF: What I love about your building is how it “pops” out of the landscape. It stands out from the landscape of the Concourse, but in away, I also feel as though it stands out, to bring in—does that make sense?
Stephanie: For sure—It’s almost a visual progression. Art Deco was the “new” thing when the concourse was being built. Our building is now contemporary—it’s the Bronx now. We are here, and our building is a symbol of the new Bronx.
With a strong mission to community and contemporary, new and emerging artists the building and institution both, together, have become symbols along the Grand Concourse of the new wave of gentrification and revitalization of the Bronx.
TF: I noticed that all the explanations on the side of the works in the galleries are bi-lingual (English and Spanish) which is uncommon, I don’t think I’ve even seen this done at larger “landmark” museums—the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Louvre, for example. Is this a standard in all your shows?
Stephanie: Oh, yes. For sure.
TF: It’s a definite reflection on the community. It’s so interesting. I really love that the institution is so conscious of the community. [Stephanie second this statement].
TF: I’ve read that you’re the only “museum” in the Bronx. Is this true?
Stephanie: Yes, there are other galleries in the Bronx, but we are the only museum institution in the Bronx. There is an artist community growing in areas like Mott Haven, where there are galleries but we remain the only museum in the Bronx.
TF: How does this effect the institution?
Stephanie: We have a responsibility to the Bronx to represent the Bronx. We have a strong showing of visual and contemporary works. And our catalogues also play into this as well. We are the primary visual cultural institution in the Bronx, and at BxMA we exhibit worthy judged art (judged by curators), and there is a strong scholarship aspect in our exhibitions.
TF: Which plays into your mission statement, which I totally love.
Stephanie: Yes, our mission statement is to show marginalized and emerging artists. So that means we show artists of many different ethnic backgrounds, people of color, and lots of women’s work. [The current show on display is: Making it Together: Women’s Collaborative Art and Community, from March 2-August 4, 2008]. So lots of our shows have strong points of view, and are sometime very political.
The shows at the museum since it has opened its new gallery space have been very strongly linked to ethnic, gender (women’s), and minority artist groups. It also has helped fortify the connection between the institution and the community it serves. The BxMA, more so then other museums, really looks toward the future and continuing the dialogue between itself and the South Bronx. A strong mission to education and outreach is key in sustaining this aspect of the institution.
TF: What about the future of this institution? As an art institution BxMA has a long and very strong connection to the Bronx. What do you see for the institution in the next five, ten, twenty years?
Stephanie: We are a key player in the community, without a doubt. Our director, Holly Block [who has been Executive Director at BxMA since September 2006], is very much involved with reacting out and connecting with the community. A goal of hers [Block] is for every Bronx school child to walk through the doors of the museum.
Although in an interview with the New York Times, a member of the board of trustees, clearly states that “first and foremost a contemporary-art museum, not a community center.” There is no mistaking the link between community and the institution. Stephanie, mentioned that she personally hopes that with the gift shop, which she stocks, there be a strong Bronx theme. The museum is fully aware that it cannot exist without the neighborhood that it serves. The museum does not stand pompously and bloated on Fifth Avenue on "Museum Mile" rather it remains within the folds of the South Bronx, modestly and proudly representing and remaining a part of the South Bronx. Both the institution and the neighborhood are acutely aware of the intertwining support one gives to the other.
TF: Education and community are pillars of the institution— do you see the mission actually happening, you know, in action on a day-to-day basis?
Stephanie: Yes. Community outreach is really important. We have programs like Family Affair, were we give tours and workshops, so children [of the community] can come and experience art and then create art as well, be inspired by the art they see here. Recently at a Family Affair event we had about one hundred children and parents/care-givers here for a tour and workshop, it was really incredible to see.
TF: Oh, that’s fantastic!
Stephanie: Yes. And we also have a program called AIM: Artists in the Marketplace. To help new and emerging artists, the program gives classes and seminars, gallery introductions, and the 36 that are chosen also have a gallery showing here at BxMA. This program has been running for about 27 years now. Also the gentrification and “revitalization” the Bronx is experiencing—the new Yankee stadium, the Grand Concourse Centennial—we are also a part of. There is a growing art community and we have a gallery called “Project Space” to serve this growing need. We also hope to soon construct a moderate-income residential apartment building and gallery space as well.
With a mission to community and contemporary art, the BxMa’s with its permanent collection maintains and highlights its institution’s strong focus on representing “contemporary art by artists of African, Asian, and Latin American descent.” The museum’s collection illustrates the institution’s strong goal of “exhibit[ing], preserve[ing], and document[ing] the work of artists not typically represented within more traditional museum collections” and those that are not commonly recognized by the artist world. BxMA has since its establishment has made a sincere attempt, and quite successfully, to curate and show exhibitions “featuring works by culturally diverse and under-recognized artists from a spectrum of levels, on themes of special interest to the Bronx community.” The institution continued and expanded, in 2000, its focus by including their focus to “artists who have live(d) and/or work(ed) in the Bronx and for whom the Bronx has been critical to their artistic development.” “The Museum strives to present exhibitions that expand discourse and scholarship, promote cross-cultural dialogue, and resonate with urban audiences” which you will see when you walk through the doors of the museum—open Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Thursday: noon-6pm, Friday: noon-8pm (closed Tuesday and Wednesday).
Note: interview responses are paraphrased.
Bibliography:
"About the Museum." Bronx Museum. The Bronx Museum of the Arts. 12 Apr. 2008 <bronxmuseum.org>.
Block, Holly. "Making It Together: Women's Collaborative Art and Community." Bronx Museum.
Ouroussoff, Nicolai. "Art to the People, and Vice Versa, in the Bronx." New York Times 6 Oct. 2006. 11 Apr. 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/arts/design/06bron.html?_r=1&scp=8&sq=&st=nyt&oref=slogin>.
Vogel, Carol. "Extensive Changes At a Bronx Museum." New York Times 21 July 2006. 11 Apr. 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/21/arts/21voge.html?scp=3&sq=bronx+museum+of+art&st=nyt>.
Williams, Timothy. "A Resurgence in the Bronx is Finally Putting the Grand Back in the Concourse." New York Times 9 May 2006. 11 Apr. 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/09/nyregion/09concourse.html?scp=11&sq=&st=nyt>.
Image Bank
Image Gallery
 Picture Credit: T.Feit |
 Picture Credit: T.Feit |
 Picture Credit: T.Feit |
South Bronx: Bronx Now
Demographics
As documented in the 2000 Census, there are approximately 1,332,650 people living in the Bronx. The racial makeup of the borough was 35.64% Black, 29.87% White, 0.85% Native American, 3.01% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 24.74% from other races, and 5.78% from two or more races. 48.38% of the population is Hispanic or Latino of any race. 14.5% of the population is Whites, not of Hispanic origins. The population of the Bronx has seen steady increase since the 1960s, except for the 1970s period. During this time the Bronx was labeled the epitome of urban decay.
The Bronx is home to one of the largest Puerto Rican populations currently in the US. The Bronx also has one of the highest percentages of Dominicans in the U.S. with 8.0%. The Hispanic presence in the Bronx is undeniable, based on data from the 2000 census, it is estimated that 47.29% of the population five and over speak only English while 43.67% speak Spanish at home, at times with English.
The dramatic decrease among non-Hispanic Whites that started in the 1960’s continues to decline. All major White ethnic groups are now at an all time low, most notably the Russian and Irish population. As of 2005, 13.1% of the population of Bronx was non-Hispanic whites. The number of non-Hispanic Whites in the Bronx has been shrinking for decades. According to the 2000 Census the Puerto Rican population has seen its first decline since the 1960’s. The rise in other Hispanic groups has clearly compensated for the decrease.
One of the more dramatic changes in recent years regarding demographics in the Bronx has been the rise in the foreign born population. “By the year 2000, there were more foreign born in The Bronx than in 1960.”
The major hurdle that has been overcome is the total abandonment by the city, state, and the Bronx's own residents. The planned shrinkage to decrease the population in the city by policy makers involved withdrawing city services like fire, police, sanitation, any and all basic services to make the neighborhood truly uninhabitable. This policy has been dismissed, investment in the Bronx has increased dramatically, crime has plummeted, and neighborhoods now have the basic foundation and support to rapidly transform into a healthier borough.
The low-income housing being built by the city in the Bronx is in fact a product of the community, not of the city. It is the Bronx's residents, those like committees such as "Nos Quedamos” (We Say) organizations such as this prevents investments in the Bronx that are not geared towards those in the community. This organization, and those like it are organizations, which act as a positive step in helping those already living in the borough to improve their well-being. The city realizes that you cannot improve the lives of those in the community, and ultimately the state of the borough, without a healthy, safe, and secure home. To assure this, much has to be invested, both time and money to allow for a continuation in improvement. The city must invest both monies and time for the long term, in better housing for the current and future residents of the borough.
The recovery effort that has been seen in the Bronx in recent years has been extraordinary. However the borough still has a long way to go. In 2005 the Bronx was named the poorest urban county with a population over 1 million. However this survey does not factor in the rising living costs of the borough.
Works Cited:
Key Changes in The Bronx Over the Past Decades. 2007. Lehman College. 20 April 2008 http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/deannss/bronxdatactr/discover/bxtime.htm.
U.S. Census Bureau. Fact Finder. 15 April 2008 http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en.
U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey (ACS). 15 April 2008 http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Profiles/Chg/2003/ACS/Tabular/001/A4000US0181.htm.
Economics
The economy the Bronx ranks in the lower tier in New York State economy, placing 57th in the state out of 62 total counties. The Bronx has a per capita personal income of $22,818, as of 2004. In 1994, the PCPI of the Bronx was $16,186, and ranked 53rd in the state, a growth of 3.5 percent from 1994-2004, while the state and national average growth were both 4.1 percent. The Bronx had a total personal income TPI of 31,347,777, this ranked 7th in the state, and accounted 4.2 percent of the state total. The Bronx has a diverse economy, from manufacturing, to real estate. for more information, follow the link to 2002 Bronx Census.
Work Cited: bearfacts Bronx 2002 Census
Culture
The culture of the Bronx, like much of New York City, reflects the ‘mosaic’ that is America in that it’s primarily an immigrant culture, mixed and matched to create a single picture made of hundreds of individuals. The South Bronx is no different. It is home to several different ethnicities, which is seen through its many mitigating institutions (over thirty can be seen within a few blocks of Yankee Stadium). Many would say that the cultural hub of the area is, of course, Yankee Stadium itself, since it is a center of entertainment, commerce, and community for the area and acts as not only one of the greatest pastimes for, but also a great buffer into American society and culture.
The Bronx also has several other cultural institutions, one of which is the Bronx Cultural Trolley. This trolley takes several New Yorkers (or tourists) on a tour of the Bronx and stops off at several historic and culturally diverse locations, including restaurants and museums, and other locations relevant to popular culture (such as birthplaces of famous people or some well-known scenes from movies).
Now on the rise again from the decay of the 70’s, the Bronx is beginning to play host to dozens of incoming families, and with the construction of the New Yankee Stadium, the Gateway Center, and the markets that will open in the immediate area (not to mention the reconstruction around the courthouse and along 169th street), the cultural center of the Bronx is looking very promising, and might yet be a center of culture not only for the county, but for the city and state as a whole.
Works Cited: www.bronxarts.org/
Governance
The Bronx as a whole is under the authority of the mayor of New York City (being one of the five boroughs), who is currently Michael R. Bloomberg. It is under a strong “mayor-council system,” in which the mayor and the city council meet regularly and discuss the major issues in the county, including education, public safety, and sanitation (among other things). Additionally, a Borough President was installed in 1898 (the year the five boroughs were consolidated) to balance the centralized system of the newly formed municipality of Greater New York City with a more local authority. Though the Borough President has limited power, he acts as a local representative more than anything, pitching what he believes is most important for the sustenance of the borough to his superiors.
In addition to its representatives in the US Congress, the Bronx has one representative to the State Senate, who meets in Albany to discuss the progress or needs of the borough. This office is currently held by Jeff Klein. Alongside the senator is the city’s assemblyman, Jeffrey Dinowitz, who acts as a representative of the Bronx to an assembly of other government officials who represent other areas in New York State, once again pitching for the needs of the county on an individual basis.
Of course, the Bronx also has its own district attorney and criminal court system (the County Courthouse being located a few blocks from Yankee Stadium). Like most of New York, the Bronx is a primarily Democratic area, with more than three quarters of voters in the past 48 years voting for the Democratic candidate for the presidency.
Works Cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronx#Government
http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.9e96a73ffb670207a62fa24601c789a0/
Revisiting: Impressions of the South Bronx, Part II
Due: May 13
