FiveMyles gallery celebrates 20th birthday
Looking for a Hero: Brooklynites have four local chances to pick up tickets to “Much
Ado About Nothing” in Central Park. Joan Marcus
COURIER L 88 IFE, MAY 17-23, 2019 24-7
By Kevin Duggan Talk about a fire festival!
Macy’s Fourth of July
fireworks will once again
light up the night sky over the
Brooklyn Bridge this year, according
to a rep for the famed department
store.
The pyrotechnic display will
launch tens of thousands of shells
and effects from the span and
from four barges off a nearby
Manhattan pier at about 9:20 p.m.,
stunning spectators along the East
River waterfront, according to the
department store’s master blaster.
“With a barrage of stunning
shells and effects launching from
its grand span and towers, along
with tens of thousands more effects
coloring the night from barges on
the lower East River, this year’s
display promises to be a spectacle
to remember,” said Susan Tercero,
the fireworks’ executive producer.
Macy’s has fired off the patriotic
display for more than four
decades and this year it plans to
add three times more firepower
than last year, launching from
more than a dozen points along
Brooklyn’s namesake bridge and
its towers throughout the 25-minute
display.
The spectacle has attracted
millions of spectators in previous
years and the company will
announce the full details of the
viewing locations, access points,
special performances, and more in
early June.
For more information, visit
www.macys.com/social /f ireworks
.
IBy Bill Roundy s there no play to ease the
anguish of a torturing hour?
There is, my lord, but
Brooklyn is a little light on the
Bard this summer, so you might
have to travel across the river,
to the distant isle of Manhattan’s
Central Park.
The Public Theater launches its
56th season of free Shakespeare
in the Park next week with “Much
Ado About Nothing,” featuring an
all-black cast. Residents of Kings
County can get a pantaloon up
on Manhattanites for four performances,
when free tickets will be
released right here in Brooklyn.
First, get a Public Theater
Patron ID at publictheater.org and
show up at these sites before noon
to score two tickets for that night’s
show in Central Park:
May 21 at Brooklyn Children’s
Museum (145 Brooklyn Ave. at St.
Marks Avenue in Crown Heights).
June 8 at King’s Highway
Library (2115 Ocean Ave. at Kings
Highway in Sheepshead Bay).
June 14 at Macon Library (361
Lewis Ave. at Macon Street in
Bedford-Stuyvestant).
June 18 at Clinton Hill Library
(380 Washington Ave. between
Lafayette and Greene avenues in
Clinton Hill).
TBy Aidan Graham his art space is hitting a
Myles-stone!
A Crown Heights gallery
known for hosting both established
and up-and-coming artists is celebrating
its 20th anniversary with
a lavish display of work from some
of the best creators to grace its
walls over the years. FiveMyles
gallery is currently showing off 82
paintings, sculptures, and interactive
installations, all of which will
be raffled off to guests at the end
of its fund-raising birthday bash on
May 19, said the gallery’s director.
“We have 82 pieces of art, from
artists who have shown here in
one way or another,” said Hanne
Tierney. “Your name is pulled out
of a hat, and when your name is
called, you choose your favorite
piece from the art that’s left, and
it’s yours.”
The anniversary spectacle will
help fund the gallery’s mission of
bringing the art world to Kings
County, said Tierney.
“We have about five or six full
exhibitions per year, and we have
performances going on in between
showings, when the gallery is
empty,” she said. “That’s been one
of the most useful things, because
people often have a hard time getting
their work out.”
Artists hoping to get eyeballs
on their work can appeal to Tierney
and her artistic advisory committee,
who are open to creatives at
any stage of their career.
“Artists come in and show us
their work. If it’s interesting, we’ll
show it,” said Tierney.
The gallery has two showrooms:
a main space, and the PlusRoom —
a small, former garage that was
designed as a locale for lesserknown
artists, but has become a
favorite of those seeking a more
intimate setting, said Tierney.
“The small space started out as
space for emerging artists, but it
turns out that it has a quiet magic
to it,” she said. “Very established
artists want to do things in the
space, and it’s often breathtaking
because it small, and it totally
involves you.”
Tierney takes pride in using
her space to feature artists who
might not get a chance elsewhere,
such as John Valembrun, who
displayed his abstract drawings in
the gallery last December.
“He makes the strangest and
most peculiar drawings,” said
Tierney. “It’s always a pleasure
when you can do things like that.
He was completely self-taught, and
he had never even thought about a
career in the art world, but we were
able to give him a platform and put
his work out to the public.”
After the 20th anniversary celebration
closes, FiveMyles will feature
an exhibition of moving sculptures
made from re-purposed street
litter by artist George Simonds,
opening on May 30.
“He was getting a B.A. from
Purchase, and his art professor
brought him to the gallery two
years ago,” said Tierney. “He
reached out to us, because he
knew exactly what he wanted to
do, so we’re really excited to feature
that.”
Tierney said the gallery is
able to feature artists of limited
fame like Simonds, because its
non-profit nature eliminates the
monetary incentive to focus on
big names.
“We’re not obliged to sell
work, so we have a lot of freedom,”
she said.
“FiveMyles 20th Anniversary
Benefit” at FiveMyles Gallery 558
St. Johns Place between Classon
and Franklin avenues in Crown
Heights, (718) 783-4438, www.
fivemyles.org. May 19 at 4 p.m.
$250. Art on display May 16–18;
1–6 p.m.
Home sweet gnome: FiveMyles gallery
will raffle off 82 works of art at its
May 19 anniversary benefit, including
this resin sculpture of a garden gnome
by Sam Tufnell. Photo by Aidan Graham
Picturesque: FiveMyles gallery has work from 82 different artists on display for its
20th anniversary. Photo by Aidan Graham
PAINT THE TOWN
Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks
will return to Brooklyn Bridge
Blasted: Macy’s will bring its popular Fourth of July firework display to Brooklyn
Bridge this year and will launch tens of thousands of shells and effects from the
span and four barges in the East River. Kent Miller
Free Shakes
/social
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/publictheater.org
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