Points of Promise

Common Build

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With Your Voice

July 11—September 9, 2024

In 2021, the New York City Council approved the Gowanus Neighborhood Plan, transforming (or “rezoning”) former manufacturing sites into residential and mixed-use properties, including an estimated 8,200 new apartments. Residents and community organizers have been working to ensure current Gowanus residents benefit from the rezoning. Their advocacy resulted in the 56 Points of Agreement (POAs) — commitments made by New York City to support housing, infrastructure, public space, community amenities, and business programs. In total, NYC will invest $450 million for these improvements in Gowanus. Approximately $200 million of that total will address high priority needs in Gowanus’ NYCHA developments.

Created by Juanli Carrión and Rodolfo Kusulas, With Your Voice envisioned change resulting from the 56 Points of Agreement. Megaphoned-shaped sculptures called “Voicers” were installed across Gowanus, each showing images of how that location will be impacted by the POAs. Whether you’re a Gowanus resident, worker, or visitor, these changes will affect your life. Visitors were invited to look through the Voicers, flip through images, and see what change could look like. A VR headset at Van Alen Institute also hosted an expansive library of additional resources, including 3D models, illustrations, interviews, and videos. 

Visitors scanned the QR code next to each Voicer to leave a voice message about what they’ve learned. Responses were shared with the Gowanus Oversight Task Force, a diverse and representative group of community volunteers that advance the POAs by meeting every three months with city agencies. Your voice will help them illustrate and humanize the POAs to make sure the city stays on track and keeps its promises.

This is Van Alen’s 15th installation in its ongoing Common Build initiative, which surfaces the work of emerging artists and tests new strategies to bring people together in public space. With Your Voice was supported by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the Council’s Brooklyn Boroughwide Needs Initiative, and with in-kind fabrication from Bednark Studio and engineering review services from Silman. The project was made possible through the collaboration of Brooklyn Public Library, New York City Housing Authority, NYC Department of Environment Protection, NYC Department of City Planning, NYC Parks, Domain Companies, PMG, SCAPE, and Avery Hall.

Learn more on the artists’ website at withyourvoice.org.

Van Alen Institute, 303 Bond St
Wyckoff-Bond Garden, 195 Wyckoff St
Powerhouse Arts, 322 3rd Ave
David Foulke Memorial Garden, 248-250 Bergen St
Wyckoff Gardens Community Center, 280 Wyckoff St
C-Town, 239 Bond St
Good Morning Deli, 303 Dean St
Brooklyn Public Library, 25 4th Ave
Siempre Restaurant, 255 3rd Ave
Office of Councilmember Hanif, 195 Bond St

Voicers are available to the public during each location’s normal operating hours. Maps are also posted at each Voicer and at withyourvoice.org.

Juanli Carrión’s work has unfolded over the past decade in the research, development, and education of community-engaged design and artistic practices addressing social and environmental justice. Over the past decade, Carrión has followed the Gowanus Canal’s changes and challenges up close. As Assistant Professor of Creative Community Development at Parsons School of Design, he has used the Canal as a case study for his Sustainable Systems Practices course, in which students map the pollution of waterways using pH reactive natural dyes. He is the co-founder of OSS Project Inc. and his work has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, BRIC, ARTIUM, MUSAC, CentroCentro, MAC Lima, India’s National Gallery of Modern Art, and Serbia’s MOCA. His research has been presented at Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, AIA New York, National Academy of Sciences, and Getty Institute, among others.

Rodolfo Kusulas is a transdisciplinary creator with a deep passion for social innovation and sustainability who uses his work as a tool to help communities thrive. With experience working internationally, he has a background in industrial design, extensive experience in branding, product and retail. After winning a global competition for the 140th anniversary of Heineken, Kusulas joined VBAT as a creative in the Latin American office. Since 2018, he’s developed programmatic design and creative community development work with KOUS studio, which he co-founded in 2016, and in collaboration with artists and nonprofit organizations.

As a duo, Carrión and Kusulas share interest in transdisciplinary research about how art and design can be used to visualize the layers of identity that compose communities. They transform stories, data, materials, actions or information into art and design strategies that serve as tools for sustainable community development. This manifests in community lead initiatives including public art that becomes urban agriculture, product design and art pieces that become small businesses as supplemental source of revenue, interactive murals and workshops that become tools for education on water pollution and jewelry that becomes therapeutic tools to confront environmental devastation.

Podwalk

“Designed for a variety of levels of engagement, this podwalk combines mini-podcast episodes with a walking tour bringing people to eight locations in Gowanus, beginning at the 9th Street bridge and ending at Thomas Greene Playground, to highlight both community benefits garnered through the Points of Agreement and reveal the stories behind them told by community members who were instrumental in advocating for and negotiating the agreements, and/or who are or will be influenced by their implementation.”

End the Loop

“This proposal seeks to keep residents and business owners “in the loop” by converting existing vehicles presently providing services to the community and pilot them as a medium to disseminate information, broadcast resident’s voices, and support the thriving culture and diverse community present in Gowanus. Adapting local vans, such as the Memory Center mobile bus, the proposal indents to preserve and cultivate the Gowanus community identity in the midst of rapid neighborhood development due to zoning changes, before it all becomes a memory.”