Archive

  1. The Dear Neighbor Project: Art Workshop

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    The Dear Neighbor Project: Art Workshop

    Rendering: The Dear Neighbor Project by Tiffany Baker

    Join us for an immersive afternoon with artist Tiffany Baker, creator of The Dear Neighbor Project — a public art and storytelling initiative that shares the voices of Gowanus residents impacted by flooding and environmental change.

    We’ll begin with a guided mural walk to view nearby outdoor installations, created from recorded neighbor interviews and layered visual storytelling.

    Following the walk, we’ll return to Van Alen Institute for a hands-on workshop and live listening session. Together, we’ll listen to excerpts from community interviews and take time to reflect through drawing, writing, and discussion. Prompts will invite you to explore personal themes of water, place, housing, and belonging—adding your voice to the evolving story of the neighborhood.

    Open to ages 12 and up. No artistic experience required.

    RSVP for free

    The Dear Neighbor Project is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, with additional support from Rebuild by Design and the Brooklyn Borough Delegation of the New York City Council. Van Alen’s programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Engineering review services were provided by TYLin.

    Points of Promise
    Common Build
    Ongoing

    The Dear Neighbor Project

    On view April 22—July 2025, Tiffany Baker’s public art project increases public awareness of flooding in Gowanus.
    See Project
    Common Build
    Ongoing

    Points of Promise

    Public art and design tools to support civic engagement in Gowanus amidst the neighborhood’s redevelopment.
    See Project

  2. Dear Neighbor: Community Interviews with Tiffany Baker

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    About

    Has flooding in Gowanus impacted you? We want to hear from you!

    Coming in Spring 2025, Tiffany Baker’s Dear Neighbor, project is a multi-site campaign and art showcase spotlighting the experiences of Gowanus residents impacted by flooding, depicted through experiential murals, audio recordings and abstracted portraits. The project aims to reflect how neighbors across the community care and support each other through a public, visual display of their stories.

    Sign up to share your story at recording sessions held at Van Alen Institute at the following times:

    Wednesdays, 3–6pm:
    January 15, 22, and 29

    Thursdays, 3–6pm:
    January 16 and 23

    Reserve your time here.

    Dear Neighbor, is part of our multiyear initiative Points of Promise, which creates public art and design tools that support civic engagement and foster connection among Gowanus residents in the midst of significant neighborhood redevelopment.

    Sign up to share your story

  3. Tiffany Baker

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    Tiffany Baker (she/her) is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based visual artist, working in oil, acrylic, pencil, digital media, and glass. Tiffany works in a unique style of realist portraiture marked by vibrant palettes and considered attention to her subject’s grooming, often merging somber, regal, and mundane themes, bringing forth her subject’s essence. In her portraiture, she transmutes life experiences into emotive visual expressions that reimagine trauma, embed messages of connection, and celebrate her identity as a Black woman.

  4. Leah Harper

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    Leah is an interdisciplinary artist with a background in art, architecture, and graphic design. She’s interested in the delicate balance between nature and the built environment, with an emphasis on the implications of climate change and rising seas. Her work explores the balance between nature and the built environment, with an emphasis on marine ecosystems and rising seas.

  5. Ali Rufrano-Ruffner

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    ALI RUFRANO-RUFFNER, currently based in Brooklyn, creates sculptures, installations, and public art. Their practice is dedicated to a culture of revolution, focused on creating art and sculpture that helps us radically imagine worlds where we can really, really care about each other. This year, RUFRANO-RUFFNER is collaborating with the Metro Transit Authority to build Concrete Jungle (NY,NY), an installation that will creatively reimagine a dilapidated retail site at The 81st Street–Museum of Natural History station.

  6. Karen Blondel

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    Karen Dawn Blondel is a trusted and respected local community leader and long-time resident of public housing in Red Hook, Brooklyn. She has been widely recognized and honored at the community, city and state federal levels for her grassroots community organizing efforts and unwavering commitment to social justice issues, including housing equity, climate change, Hurricane Sandy recovery, environmental health, and COVID-19 preparedness. Karen is a Havard Graduate School of Design Loeb Fellow 2022.The Human Impacts Institute and NYC  Department of Transportation declared her an NYC Climate Hero. When NY State went on PAUSE, she partnered with the Red Hook Container Terminal and spearheaded the weekly distribution of fresh produce to Red Hook and Gowanus residents. Karen has trained as a Computer Aided Designer and Drafter, worked as a Construction Inspector and Civil Engineer  Assistant and is certified in Biomedical and Behavioral Research with Human Participants. She has worked on the impacts of the Gowanus Canal remediation on NYCHA residents, as a community liaison for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and as a certified US Census Field Representative and Data Collector. In 2020, she founded the Public Housing Civic Association, a local community-based non-profit organization that gives voice to public housing residents as they address issues related to the built environment.

    Karen is a Community Liaison for NASEM National Association for Science Engineering and Medicine raising awareness around PFAS contamination. 

    Karen is one of 5 2023 David Prize winners. This prize is awarded to ordinary New Yorkers who have ideas and visions that will benefit New Yorkers.

  7. Sebastian Mendez

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    Sebastian is a licensed architect with 16 years of architecture experience. Prior to founding Tankhouse, Sebastian was an Associate Partner at Foster + Partners New York where he lead the design and project management for a range of North and South American projects spanning residential, cultural and commercial design.

    Sebastian earned his Master of Science in Architecture from the University of Buenos Aires (2002) and has completed coursework at New York University’s Schack Institute for Real Estate Development. Sebastian previously held teaching positions at the University of Buenos Aires and the Boston Architectural College.

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  8. Andrea Parker

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    As the Executive Director of Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Andrea works to empower a community of environmental stewards and advocates in the rapidly changing Gowanus Watershed. As an instructor at City College of New York, she engages landscape architecture students with the complex ecological, economic and cultural forces at play in New York’s dynamic urban ecology. Her previous work as a landscape designer and gardener provides a pragmatic understanding of how landscapes are designed, built and maintained. She received a BA from the University of Chicago, studied Landscape Horticulture at Merritt College, and received a MLA from the University of Virginia.

  9. Immanuel Oni

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    Immanuel Oni is a first-generation Nigerian-American artist and space doula living between New York City and hometown Houston, TX. He believes design is not about what he is making, but who he is making it for. As for art, it is religion. His work explores loss, memory, and its deep connection with space. He utilizes spatial justice design and visual storytelling to unearth narratives related to trauma, healing, and ritual. His canvas consists of repurposing existing public space infrastructure such as light posts, fencing, underutilized green areas or mobile spaces to prompt community dialogue and connection. His aim is to fuse the physical with the spiritual. He has led and participated in international art and urbanism workshops in Venice, Hong Kong, and Lagos. He has been a Fellow for the Design Trust for Public Space, Culture Push, New York for Culture and Arts, More Art Engaging Artist Commission NY, and received awards from Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY, Office of Neighborhood Safety, Architectural League of New York, the New York State Council of the Arts, and commissioned by Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) as the artist for the Chrystie Street African Burial Ground Memorial Installation in the Lower East Side. He is a former Director of Community Design at the New York City’s Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and Adjunct Professor at Parsons the New School for Design. He is the co-founder and Creative Director of Liminal, a non-profit that works at the intersection of art, unity, and space.

  10. Lynn Neuman

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    Lynn Neuman is a national leading eco-artist known for programs and performances layered with involvement and action. She has created 45 works for Artichoke Dance, been commissioned to create 22 works for other groups and directed nine operas. Her site specific work has been commissioned by The Soraya, connecting California State University with Los Angeles River restoration, Waterfront Alliance, reflecting on the effects of sea level rise, Texas A&M, engaging with water use and rights in the desert southwest, and National Gallery of Art, for Voices of the Ocean.

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