BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP BUZZ NOVEMBER 17 - NOVEMBER 23, 2017 27 BROOKLYN
CULTURE BRIEFS
COMPILED BY JAIME DEJESUS
ARCHITECTURE IN
GREEN-WOOD
Green-Wood Cemetery, home to a spectacular
collection of 19th-century architectural gems by
some of the most famed architects in American history,
will be offering architecture buffs and others
the opportunity to feast their eyes on them during
an Architecture in Green-Wood trolley tour.
The tour will explore the critical role architects
have played in transforming the landscapes
of not only Green-Wood, but New York City.
The tour will kick off from Fifth Avenue and
25th Street on Sunday, November 19 at 12 p.m.
Tickets are $20 for members of Green-Wood
and the Brooklyn Historical Society and $25 for
non-members.
For more information, visit www.green-wood.
com.
PUPPET & FAIRY TALE
TIME
Bring the family to the Brooklyn Public Library
as its Youth and Families program presents “Monsterpalooza
Puppet & Fairy Tale Time.”
Join Nicola McEldowney, puppeteer, and her
band of monster puppets for a rollicking good
time of songs and fairy tales.
Kids will get to be the characters in different
well-loved stories led by our puppet hosts. There
will be singing, dancing and lots of audience participation
in this puppet variety extravaganza.
The free event takes place on Saturday, November
18 at 1 p.m. at the Central Library, 10 Grand
Army Plaza. For more information, visit www.
bklynlibrary.org/calendar.
THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE
WITH KEN BURNS
Head over to the Brooklyn Museum to meet
acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns as he hosts a
screening of “The Brooklyn Bridge.”
Join Burns for a newly remastered screening of
his Academy Award–nominated documentary that
was released in 1981, followed by a discussion with
Burns and New York Times reporter Jim Dwyer.
The film returns to the Brooklyn Museum,
where it originally premiered, to examine the
narratives of struggle and triumph behind the
creation of the Brooklyn Bridge.
The screening will take place at the Brooklyn
Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, in the Iris and B.
Gerald Cantor Auditorium on Thursday, December
7 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $16 and include museum admission.
Members receive complimentary tickets.
For more information, visit www.brooklynmuseum.
org.
Bay Ridge artist's work
brims with local meaning
BY MEAGHAN MCGOLDRICK
MMCGOLDRICK@BROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
Bay Ridge-based artist
Alicia Degener has been
painting the world around
her for close to a decade.
That world includes old-school
Brooklyn brownstones, the landmark
Coney Island Wonder Wheel
and the now-shuttered but storied
Vegas Diner – to name a few.
Her work – which has been
on display and for sale
in galleries and local
storefronts alike –
will be up for viewing
and purchase starting
Thursday, November
16 at the Coop. The
exhibit – dubbed “Bay
Ridge/South Brooklyn
‘Scapes’” – will run for a
month, according to the
local artist.
“The Coop has been great to
me,” said Degener who studied
at both Parsons School of Design
and the Art Institute of Chicago.
“Normally I don’t have anything
to do with coffee shops and
restaurants because the art is
more for decoration and the artists
don’t get too much out of it.
But this has been incredible. They
want local artists shown here and
their customers support it, which
you don’t really see a lot of today.”
This is her second solo show at
the Bay Ridge coffee shop, though
she has also participated in group
showings.
As for her work, the local
resident has honed in on her
hometown, and the ‘hoods that
surround it.
“I pretty much just paint what’s
around me,” said Degener, a Detroit
native and mother of two
who relocated to southern Brooklyn
in 1986 and specifically to Bay
Ridge in 1997. Today, she is one
of 70 area artists who have have
affordable gallery space at Chashama
Open Studios, supported
by Anita Durst
and the Durst
Foundation
“I have a
studio at the
Brooklyn Army
Terminal, and I
live in Bay Ridge
so there’s so much beauty around
me and on my way to work," she
said. "You can't miss these things."
Though, according to Degener,
the inspiration extends
well beyond just her subjects’
architecture. “South Brooklyn
is not just about brownstones
for me, it’s also about the food,”
she said. “Nathan’s Hot Dogs,
Junior's Cheesecake, Bay Ridge’s
own Pizza Wagon and gone-butnot
forgotten disco fries from the
Vegas Diner are all iconic.”
As are the bridges that connect
the boroughs. “Bridges are also a
part of my artistic vision,” Degener
said, pointing, to start, at a massive
depiction of the Brooklyn Bridge,
which long hung in the window
of Skinfints, but now hangs at the
Coop and is also available for sale
as part of this exhibit.
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photo by
Her pieces are as vibrant and
eccentric as they are surprisingly
accurate and
reminiscent of
each subject – an
impressive feat
that allows for
something for
everyone.
“The Brooklyn
I see has an odd
sense of perspective,
full of color
and patterns and
a desire to hang onto a vision of
itself that is disappearing,” she
said. “I hope everyone enjoys
my view of Bay Ridge and south
Brooklyn.”
Degener, though painting to
make a living, has also lent her
talents to the community she
calls home. Most recently, she donated
art to the newly remodeled
Fort Hamilton Senior Center, and
plans to work with volunteers on
a forthcoming mural for its exterior.
She also donates her work to
local charity events for raffle and
auction.
“It’s important to make the
community your own,” said the
artist, who most certainly does
that on and off-canvas.
For more information on Degener,
visit www.aliciadegener.
com.
Meaghan McGoldrick
Alicia Degener and some of
her work.