Williamsburg, Brooklyn Today

From Starving Artist to “Starving Artist”: DIY Arts in Williamsburg

Feb 25, 2009 by Khristina Narizhnaya
Nowadays bohemians from all over the world flock to Williamsburg hoping to find inspiration, but it takes more than creativity to stay afloat in this hip locale. The neighborhood’s exorbitant rents require these free spirits to have some serious bank before even considering the move.

The situation was not always so. As is the case with many funky New York neighborhoods, Williamsburg was once a crime-ridden slum where the creative underclass found refuge from skyrocketing Manhattan rents, and the lack of exhibition opportunities in Soho and Chelsea. Director Marcin Ramocki’s documentary “Brooklyn DIY,” slated for its world premiere at the Museum of Modern Art on February 25, captures an era when Williamsburg was populated by artists with big ambitions and empty pockets.

“I wanted to preserve the DIY art scene, show it to people,” said Ramocki. “DIY is the art movement of people with no money,” he clarified.

Ramocki has and has been involved in the Williamsburg art scene since the 1990s, as an artist and an exhibiter. In 2007 he realized that the DIY character of the Williamsburg art scene was rapidly changing due to rising rents and gentrification of the neighborhood, so he decided to promptly archive it before it was too late.

The documentary, which, according to Ramocki, is “as DIY as DIY gets,” due to its low budget and small production team, examines the development of the Williamsburg art scene from its conception in mid-1980s, to the “scene” it has become today. In the mid-1980s “pioneers,” such as painter Amy Stillman and hybrid sculptor Ken Butler, moved to Williamsburg for the cheap space. Toward the end of the 1980s, Williamsburg had become an artistic community with “anarchistic creativity” expressed in DIY art galleries, loft parties and warehouse “happenings.” Around the turning of the new millennium, the art scene changed dramatically, with professional and business-oriented art and artistic spaces replacing anything and everything DIY.

“Brooklyn DIY” is showcased as part of the 2009 edition of Documentary Fortnight, MoMA’s annual exhibit of international documentary film and video. Sally Berger, the assistant curator at MoMA’s Department of Film who organized the exhibit, decided to include the documentary in the series because the history of the evolution of Williamsburg as an artists’ community has not yet been told, she said.

“It is a unique chapter of art, life and creativity that began when artists started moving to Williamsburg after the collapse of Soho as an artists’ haven,” Berger said. “The DIY movement was unique, original, and spontaneous and inspired a renaissance of creativity outside the mainstream art world.”

Ramocki said that it is becoming harder and harder to find the DIY art spaces in Williamsburg. In the mid-1980s and 1990s it was possible to rent a space, maneuver and manage an art gallery or a performance space, without having significant capital or cash flow. But the prices have sky-rocketed, space is limited and in high demand and artist-run establishments are facing more and more challenges. For all that, Ramocki is not saying that the art scene in Williamsburg is dead in any way. Now, it’s just different.

“You’re still going to have creative individuals moving to Williamsburg. But now it’s a different group of people, economically speaking,” said Ramocki. “But the spirit is still the same.”

Source - http://www.greenpointnews.com/entertainment/from-starving-artist-to-starving-artist-diy-arts-in-williamsburg