Date: January 22nd 2009

Visualizing SPURA
an exhibition by students of the City Studio at Eugene Lang/New School and Prof. Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani, in collaboration with the initiative SPURA Matters, a project of Place Matters, GOLES and the Pratt Center for Community Development.

January 29 - March 21, 2009

Opening Reception:
Thursday January 29, 6-8pm

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Forty years ago, New York City took ownership of an area on the Lower East Side bounded by Essex, Delancey, Grand, and Willett Streets--the Seward Park Urban Renewal Site (SPURA). Few renewal projects have been so contested, and as a result, it remains the largest undeveloped city-owned parcel of land south of 96th Street. The hopes, memories and meanings of this place are intertwined with the history of housing and politics on the Lower East Side and in New York City at large.

Please join us at a new exhibition, Visualizing SPURA, to help envision this site's future. What are the stories of its present and its past? What are the politics that surround it? Visualizing SPURA uses photographs, oral histories, maps, listening stations and opportunities for you to make your voice heard about the future and everyday life of this complex site.

The student-creators of the Visualizing SPURA exhibition are: Anastasia Ehrich, Savannah Foster, Kara Gionfriddo, Winhkong Hua, Evan Iacoboni, Samantha Lewis, Rachael London, Hannah Lyons, Gabriel Tennen, and Samantha Washburn-Baronie. Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani is the course professor and exhibition curator.

The City Studio course of the Urban Studies department, Eugene Lang/New School explores the life of a small urban space, through archival, ethnographic, visual and participatory research. Partnerships with local organizations are an important part of the course, which stresses an engagement with the vibrant communities of New York City. This course is sponsored by the Office of Civic Engagement at Eugene Lang College.

SPURA Matters is a visioning project for the SPURA site to get people talking about SPURA's future. It is a collaboration between Good Old Lower East Side, Pratt Center for Community Development, and City Lore. The series funded in part by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities to support public programs about SPURA, and by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and Altman Foundation.

Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) (www.goles.org) was founded in 1977 and is a neighborhood housing and preservation organization, dedicated to tenants' rights, homelessness prevention and community revitalization through organizing and advocacy.

The Pratt Center for Community Development (www.prattcenter.net) empowers low- and moderate-income communities in New York to plan for and realize their futures. As part of Pratt Institute, it uses urban planning, architecture, and public policy to support community-based organizations in their efforts to improve quality of life, create economic opportunity, and advance sustainable development.

Place Matters (www.placematters.net) was founded in 1998 by City Lore (www.citylore.org) and the Municipal Art Society (www.mas.org) to foster the conservation of New York City's historically and culturally significant places. It conducts a citywide survey called the "Census of Places that Matter" to discover places that evoke associations with history, memory, and tradition.

Special thanks to Joseph Heathcott (Department of Urban Studies, Eugene Lang College), The New School Office of Civic Engagement (Eugene Lang College, The New School), Damaris Reyes and Kara Becker (Good Old Lower East Side), Marci Reaven (Place Matters) and Paula Crespo (Pratt Center for Community Development).

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common room 2
465 Grand Street - rear lobby
New York, NY 10002
tel.: 212.358.8605
www.common-room.net

open hours: mon-fri 9am - 6pm
or by appointment

Directions:
Take F train to East Broadway stop. Exit at rear of platform if coming downtown or front of platform if coming from Brooklyn. Walk East on East Broadway just past Pitt Street. Use Rear Entrance on East Broadway.

Map link:
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common room
465 grand street 4c
new york, ny 10002

t: 212.358.8605
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www.common-room.net